Climate Change & Health

Climate change is a key driving cause of disease as well as impacting on health systems globally. The effects of climate change are already affecting morbidity, mortality, and society’s abilities to deliver healthcare globally and its impacts are predicted to increase in the future. Increasingly research has evidenced the impacts of climate change on population health and health systems globally, with climate change being viewed as a threat multiplier as it intensifies resource scarcity and worsens existing social, economic and environmental factors. Climate change also widens inequalities within and between countries as health risks disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change notes that there are now record-breaking human costs of climate change that are threatening wellbeing, health, and survival from the rapidly changing climate. The report highlights that of the 15 indicators monitoring climate change-related health hazards, exposures, and impacts, ten reached concerning new records in their most recent year of data. Climate change also has significant impacts on mental health, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes with very high confidence that "climate change has adversely affected the mental health of people in the assessed regions."

Understanding the impacts of climate change on health is vital and Kings is leading global, interdisciplinary research into these areas.