Managing the health effects of climate change

Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk. During this century, earthﾒs average surface temperature rises are likely to exceed the safe threshold of 2ﾰC above preindustrial average temperature. Rises will be greater at higher latitudes, with medium-risk scenarios predicting 2ﾖ3ﾰC rises by 2090 and 4ﾖ5ﾰC rises in northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. In this report, we have outlined the major threatsﾗboth direct and indirectﾗto global health from climate change through changing patterns of disease, water and food insecurity, vulnerable shelter and human settlements, extreme climatic events, and population growth and migration. Although vector-borne diseases will expand their reach and death tolls, especially among elderly people, will increase because of heatwaves, the indirect effects of climate change on water, food security, and extreme climatic events are likely to have the biggest effect on global health.