Climate Change and Health Effects

"Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time."

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Climate change is a change in the world’s weather systems that occurs over decades. Most of the recent changes in our climate have been brought about by human activity.

Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, raising air and sea temperatures. They are primarily produced through the burning of fossil fuels (like coal) for electricity generation, as well as through agricultural, mining, land management and transport practices. 

The effects of climate change are already being felt. Because of global warming, Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.4°C since official Bureau of Meteorology records began in 1910.

In Victoria, the average temperature has increased by just over 1.0°C across the state since 1910. With this amount of warming, Victoria is already experiencing:

an increase in the frequency of days of extreme heat

an increase in dangerous fire weather and length of fire seasons 

a decline in cool season rainfall, resulting in the lowest streamflow on record over the past decades a rise in sea levels.

Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress. The health impacts of climate change on the human population are negative, they can facilitate outbreaks of zoonoses, i.e. diseases that pass from animals to humans. One example of such outbreaks is the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There are things we can all do now to build our resilience to the effects of climate change and help slow its pace.

Climate change is devastating to our environment and causes adverse health effects. Heatwaves, droughts, heavy storms, and rising sea levels impact the mental and physical health of people and countries' health infrastructure. Vector-borne and respiratory diseases, food and water insecurity, and undernutrition represent indirect impacts.

“On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.” - Kofi Annan