The Global Health Observatory
Explore a world of health data
WHO / Blink Media - Francesca Volpi
Climate change is impacting human lives and health in a variety of ways.
It threatens the essential ingredients of good health - clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply, and safe shelter - and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health.
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone. The direct damage costs to health is estimated to be between USD 2-4 billion per
year by 2030.
Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond. WHO supports countries in building climate-resilient health systems and tracking national progress in protecting health from climate change.
Related topics
More PHE data products
9 February 2020
WHO global strategy on health, environment and climate change: the transformation needed to improve lives...
The burden of disease attributable to the environment is high and persistent, and amounts to 13 million deaths each year (one quarter of all deaths), and...
Some 26% of childhood deaths and 25% of the total disease burden in children under five were attributed to environmental exposures in 2012. This estimate...
WASH data
Featured publication | 13 September 2021
Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and...
The World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/ UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene...
Contact us
Please send us your comment or question by e-mail.