Optimizing climate health adaptation policies

At the just-concluded UN Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, health amid climate change was a prominent subject of discussion. Climate change does pose a serious threat to the health and wellbeing of people around the globe, because it is responsible for the increasing extreme weather events such as extreme heat, floods and forest fires.

According to a World Health Organization report, climate change is impacting human health in a myriad of ways, causing food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, including fatal health conditions, as well as increasing mental health issues and disrupting food production and supply.

A 2022 review published in Nature Climate Change showed that of the 375 infectious diseases under study, 218(58 percent) had been aggravated by climate change. An increasing number of studies have also examined the economic impacts of climate change on human health. For example, Xie Yang, a professor at Beihang University, found that from 1960 to 2020, the monetary value of deaths caused by heat waves in China added up to about 1.28 trillion yuan ($176.66 billion), while the economic losses caused by cold waves were as high as 1.51 trillion yuan.