Abstract
The climate crisis threatens to exacerbate numerous climate-sensitive health risks, including heatwave mortality, malnutrition from reduced crop yields, water- and vector-borne infectious diseases, and respiratory illness from smog, ozone, allergenic pollen, and wildfires. Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stress the urgent need for action to mitigate climate change, underscoring the need for more scientific assessment of the benefits of climate action for health and wellbeing. Project Drawdown has analyzed more than 80 solutions to address climate change, building on existing technologies and practices, that could be scaled to collectively limit warming to between 1.5° and 2 °C above preindustrial levels. The solutions span nine major sectors and are aggregated into three groups: reducing the sources of emissions, maintaining and enhancing carbon sinks, and addressing social inequities. Here we present an overview of how climate solutions in these three areas can benefit human health through improved air quality, increased physical activity, healthier diets, reduced risk of infectious disease, and improved sexual and reproductive health, and universal education. We find that the health benefits of a low-carbon society are more substantial and more numerous than previously realized and should be central to policies addressing climate change. Much of the existing literature focuses on health effects in high-income countries, however, and more research is needed on health and equity implications of climate solutions, especially in the Global South. We conclude that adding the myriad health benefits across multiple climate change solutions can likely add impetus to move climate policies faster and further.
Highlights
The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that it is unequivocal that heating of the planet is caused by human activities and that the 1 ◦ C of warming above preindustrial times currently being observed is already disrupting weather in every region of the planet [1]
Building from a priority list of climate solutions created by Project Drawdown, we review information on a wide array of health benefits that can accompany climate mitigation
The overall evidence is in favor of clean cooking solutions that rely on electricity or clean-burning liquefied petroleum gas to realize their climate mitigation and health benefits potential [44–46]
Summary
The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that it is unequivocal that heating of the planet is caused by human activities and that the 1 ◦ C of warming above preindustrial times currently being observed is already disrupting weather in every region of the planet [1]. Project Drawdown has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness, scale, and cost of scores of climate mitigation measures [5] Their system of solutions spans all sectors, exist today, have proven potential to reduce GHGs in the atmosphere, and are financially viable. Health professionals report a need for resources to help convey the breadth of health benefits that climate solutions offer [20] The purpose of this perspective is to leverage the strengths of Project Drawdown’s comprehensive analysis of climate mitigation solutions with research on the linkages between climate, infrastructure, education, and public health. These insights provide a foundation for evidence-based policies that are effective at both mitigating and addressing climate change while improving human wellbeing
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