WHO Fact Sheet on CC/Health Impacts

The World Health Organization (WHO) published its Fact Sheet N°266 on “Climate change and health,” which includes sections on: the impact of climate change on health; extreme heat; natural disasters and variable rainfall patterns; patterns of infection; measuring health effects; sectors of the population at risk; and the WHO response.

The Fact Sheet highlights, inter alia, that many major killers such as diarrhoeal diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen as the climate changes, and that reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result in improved health.

The fact sheet recalls that in 2009, the World Health Assembly endorsed a new WHO workplan on climate change and health, which includes: advocacy (raising awareness that climate change is a fundamental threat to human health); partnerships (coordinating with other UN agencies and ensuring that health is properly represented in the climate change agenda); science and evidence (coordinating reviews of scientific evidence on the links between climate change and health, and developing a global research agenda); and health system strengthening (assisting countries to assess their health vulnerabilities and build capacity to reduce health vulnerability to climate change). [The Fact Sheet] [WHO Workplan on Climate Change and Health]

Related posts:

  1. Health Impacts of Climate Change
  2. U.S. EPA Fact Sheets on CC
  3. Earthscan Webcast on CC and Health
  4. The Future of the Greenland Ice Sheet?
  5. Sea Level Rise and Coastal Impacts

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