What does the latest IPCC report mean for human health?
Medact has developed its second briefing explaining the health implications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II report, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. The report describes in worrying detail the current and future impacts of climate change as well as the challenges we face in adapting to these impacts and mitigating further damage.Medact’s briefing summarises some of the IPCC’s key findings, discusses their implications for health, and provides recommendations on the way forward.
The impacts of climate change on human health and social wellbeing are varied and occur through many different pathways. They span the full breadth of the immediate and underlying determinants of health, including, for example, the direct impacts of heat and extreme weather events; access to the essentials of life such as clean water, nutritious food and shelter; forced migration; conflict and societal disruption; and loss of biodiversity.