Burden Of Climate Change Research Articles

Burden of climate change on malaria mortality.

In 2016, an estimated 445,000 deaths and 216 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, while 70% of the deaths occurred in children under five years old. Changes in climatic exposures such as temperature and precipitation make malaria one of the most climate sensitive outcomes. Using a global malaria mortality dataset for 105 countries between 1980 and 2010, we find a non-linear relationship between temperature and malaria mortality and estimate that the global optimal temperature threshold beyond which all-age malaria mortality increases is 20.8 °C, while in the case of child mortality; a significantly lower optimum temperature of 19.3° is estimated. Our results also suggest that this optimal temperature is 28.4 °C and 26.3 °C in Africa and Asia, respectively - the continents where malaria is most prevalent. Furthermore, we estimate that child mortality (ages 0-4) is likely to increase by up to 20% in some areas due to climate change by the end of the 21st century.

Fijian adolescents’ understanding and evaluation of climate change: Implications for enabling effective future adaptation

Pacific Island countries are particularly vulnerable to future manifestations of climate change due to high coastline‐to‐land‐area ratios, and high dependence of inhabitants on natural ecosystems. While everyone in the Pacific Islands should participate in climate change adaptation activities, it is the young people, given they are the generation likely to not only bear the burden of climate change, but to lead and live effective climate change adaptation activities and strategies specific to their region, the involvement of youth is critical. Pacific Island youths are often marginalised within traditional decision‐making hierarchies, therefore they are typically excluded from participating in meaningful discussions at community and government levels. Discussions were held with 30 adolescents aged 14–18 years in Fiji to explore knowledge and experiences regarding climate change. Participants revealed their dismay at their inability to talk to family – who they consider are not doing enough – about what they consider as appropriate responses to climate change, recommending the help of an authoritative outsider who could speak to their community leaders and family. Discussions also revealed that Fijian youth could not distinguish between changes in the climate and normal weather events, attesting to the importance of climate‐change education and awareness‐raising efforts within the Pacific Islands more generally.

Projection of Ozone-Related Mortality with Climate and Population Changes in Urban China

Background/Aim: China is experiencing rising ozone pollution in urban areas, but its potential future health impacts under both climate and population changes remain unclear. We examine future annual and seasonal ozone-related mortality in 347 urban counties of China under three climate and emission scenarios and six population scenarios. Methods: Ozone projections were statistically downscaled from a global chemistry-climate model to a fine spatial resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) using newly available ambient ozone monitoring data across China from 2013-2015. The attributable fraction method was then applied to estimate the daily ozone-related premature mortality in the 2010s, 2030s, 2040s, and 2050s, respectively. Results: Higher ground-level ozone occurs under an extreme warming scenario in which air pollutant emissions are held at 2005 levels (RCP8.5_WMGG), leading to an excess 4296 (95% CI: 3415 to 5169), 5181 (4213 to 6228), and 5134 (4086 to 6171) non-accidental deaths per year in 2033-2035, 2043-2045, and 2053-2055 relative to 2013-2015. Estimates of future changes in ozone-related mortality are sensitive to the choice of climate and emissions scenario, decreasing under RCP4.5 but increasing under RCP8.5 by 2043-2045 and 2053-2055 relative to 2013-2015. Population increases amplify the adverse impacts of climate change on ozone-related mortality. Deteriorating ozone air quality in colder months contributes to excess ozone-related mortality. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that more stringent air pollution control measures will be needed, including beyond the warm season, to prevent a rising health burden of climate change via ozone pollution in urban China.

Mapping Climate Justice: Visualizing the Burden of Climate Stabilization

Climate stabilization is among the most pressing challenges humanity faces in the 21st century. In the words of Pope Francis, “we can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity (2015, p. 78).” While consensus on the necessity for political action to combat climate change is building worldwide, significant questions about how this can be achieved remain. How can we imagine a just and fair, multinational, sharing of the burdens that must be met in order for humanity to successfully combat climate change? This is the problem that I have been working on for some time. My solution maps the future of climate justice using three key principles. First, the principle of climate justice within a country. This means that, as each country moves toward accomplishing their climate justice goals, low- and high-income households should share the same burden proportional to their dispensable income as they do so. Second, the principle of fair climate change burden sharing between countries. Since winning and losing from a warming earth differs vastly around the globe, fairness between countries means that the countries that benefit more from a warmer climate should also bear a higher burden of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Thirdly, I propose not only that justice be sought within and between countries today, but that we attend to climate justice over time. I argue that this historical, transgenerational, long-term approach to climate justice can be implemented through the use of innovative climate change bonds.

WW LCI v2: A second-generation life cycle inventory model for chemicals discharged to wastewater systems

We present a second-generation wastewater treatment inventory model, WW LCI 2.0, which on many fronts represents considerable advances compared to its previous version WW LCI 1.0. WW LCI 2.0 is a novel and complete wastewater inventory model integrating WW LCI 1.0, i.e. a complete life cycle inventory, including infrastructure requirement, energy consumption and auxiliary materials applied for the treatment of wastewater and disposal of sludge and SewageLCI, i.e. fate modelling of chemicals released to the sewer. The model is expanded to account for different wastewater treatment levels, i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary treatment, independent treatment by septic tanks and also direct discharge to natural waters. Sludge disposal by means of composting is added as a new option. The model also includes a database containing statistics on wastewater treatment levels and sludge disposal patterns in 56 countries. The application of the new model is demonstrated using five chemicals assumed discharged to wastewater systems in four different countries. WW LCI 2.0 model results shows that chemicals such as diethylenetriamine penta (methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMP) and Diclofenac, exhibit lower climate change (CC) and freshwater ecotoxicity (FET) burdens upon wastewater treatment compared to direct discharge in all country scenarios. Results for Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen (more readily degradable) show that the CC burden depends on the country-specific levels of wastewater treatment. Higher treatment levels lead to lower CC and FET burden compared to direct discharge. WW LCI 2.0 makes it possible to generate complete detailed life cycle inventories and fate analyses for chemicals released to wastewater systems. Our test of the WW LCI 2.0 model with five chemicals illustrates how the model can provide substantially different outcomes, compared to conventional wastewater inventory models, making the inventory dependent upon the atomic composition of the molecules undergoing treatment as well as the country specific wastewater treatment levels.

Burden of Climate Change on Malaria Mortality

In 2015, an estimated 429,000 deaths and 212 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, while 70% of the deaths occurred in children under five years old. Changes in climatic exposure such as temperature and precipitation makes malaria one of the most climate sensitive outcomes. Using a global malaria mortality dataset for 105 countries between 1980 and 2010, we estimate that the global optimal temperature maximizing all-age malaria mortality is 20.6, lower than previously predicted in the literature. While in the case of child mortality, a significantly lower optimum temperature of 19.3° is estimated. Our results also suggest that in Africa and Asia, the continents where malaria is most prevalent malaria, mortality is maximized at 28.4 and 26.3, respectively. Furthermore, we estimate that child mortality (ages 0-4) is likely to increase by up to 20 percent in some areas due to climate change by the end of the 21st century.

Detecting and Attributing Health Burdens to Climate Change.

Background:Detection and attribution of health impacts caused by climate change uses formal methods to determine a) whether the occurrence of adverse health outcomes has changed, and b) the extent to which that change could be attributed to climate change. There have been limited efforts to undertake detection and attribution analyses in health.Objective:Our goal was to show a range of approaches for conducting detection and attribution analyses.Results:Case studies for heatwaves, Lyme disease in Canada, and Vibrio emergence in northern Europe highlight evidence that climate change is adversely affecting human health. Changes in rates and geographic distribution of adverse health outcomes were detected, and, in each instance, a proportion of the observed changes could, in our judgment, be attributed to changes in weather patterns associated with climate change.Conclusions:The results of detection and attribution studies can inform evidence-based risk management to reduce current, and plan for future, changes in health risks associated with climate change. Gaining a better understanding of the size, timing, and distribution of the climate change burden of disease and injury requires reliable long-term data sets, more knowledge about the factors that confound and modify the effects of climate on health, and refinement of analytic techniques for detection and attribution. At the same time, significant advances are possible in the absence of complete data and statistical certainty: there is a place for well-informed judgments, based on understanding of underlying processes and matching of patterns of health, climate, and other determinants of human well-being. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1509

Mapping Climate in the 21st Century

Climate justice accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the current climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, high and low income households but also developed and underdeveloped countries as well as various overlapping generations are affected differently. This article maps international climate change mitigation and adaptation regimes in order to derive fair climate stability implementation strategies. Based on insights on the current endeavor to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation around the globe, a 3-dimensional climate justice approach will be introduced to share the burden of climate change fair within society. First, climate justice within a country should pay tribute to the fact that low- and high income households share the same burden proportional to their dispensable income, for instance enabled through a progressive carbon taxation. Those who caused climate change could be regulated to bear a higher cost through carbon tax in combination with retroactive billing through inheritance tax. Secondly, fair climate change burden sharing between countries comprises of argumentations that those countries benefiting more from a stable climate, hence those with a larger landscape or higher population, who have more access to climate than others, should also bear a higher burden of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Countries that reap benefit from a warming earth should be obliged to finance international aid for those who are impacted negatively by climate change, e.g., climate refugees. In addition, building on case and international law, those countries that have better means of protection or conservation of the common climate should also face a greater responsibility to protect the earth. Thirdly, climate justice over time is proposed in an innovative climate change burden sharing strategy. Innovative compensation schemes to share the burden of climate change with bonds help weight the burden of climate change more equally between today’s and tomorrow’s society. A climate tax-and-bonds mix could subsidize the current world industry for transitioning to green solutions and future generations, who will enjoy a less carbon intensive industry and more stable climate but should repay those bonds. Thereby the current generation is advised to mitigate climate change financed through bonds to remain financially as well off as without mitigation while improving environmental well-being of future generations. This respective intergenerational tax-and-transfer policy-mix could turn climate change mitigation into a Pareto-improving strategy. All these efforts should alleviate the contemporary global governance predicament that seems to pit today’s generation against future world inhabitants in a trade-off of economic growth versus sustainability. Deriving respective policy recommendations for the wider climate change community is aimed at ensuring to share the burden but also the benefits of climate change within society, between countries and over time in an equitable and fair way.

The Climatorial Imperative

Climate change has become reality. Climate stability accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the very many contemporary writings about global warming, the discussion has been centred around the negative impacts of climate change. The burden of climate change has been thematised and cost-sharing strategies heatedly debated. The need for fairness in sharing the burden of climate change has been argued to consider national economies, the world society but also balance inbetween generations. A warming global earth was recently revealed to hold advantages (Puaschunder, 2017a, b). Based on state-of-the-art welfare function measurements and economic productivity parameters, the economic gains and productivity-efficiency benefits from a warming earth were recently captured (Puaschunder, 2017a, b). Contemporary Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measurements served as basis for estimations about the productivity of the agriculture, industry and service sectors around the warming globe. Results naturally build the intellectual basis for the climatorial imperative – advocating for the need for fairness in the distribution of the global earth benefits among nations based on Kant’s (1983/1993) imperative to only engage in actions one wants to experience themselves being done to oneself. Passive neglect of action on climate mitigation is argued as an active injustice to others. Countries passive or agnostic about global warming mitigation that reap benefits from a warming earth should therefore be obliged to finance international aid for those that are directly and negatively impacted by climate change – for instance, grant automatic asylum to climate refugees. In addition, building on common and international law, those countries that have better means of protection or conservation of the common climate should also face a greater responsibility to protect the earth (Puaschunder, 2016). All these efforts should alleviate the contemporary global governance predicament that seems to pit today’s generation against future world inhabitants in a trade-off of economic growth versus sustainability. Deriving respective policy recommendations and incentives to spread the prospective global warming gains for the wider climate change community around the globe and over time is aimed at ensuring that the shared benefits of climate change reach all contemporary and future world inhabitants around the globe in an economically efficient, legally sound and ethically equitable but also practically feasible way.

The Climatorial Imperative

Climate change has become reality. Climate stability accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the very many contemporary writings about global warming, the discussion has been centred around the negative impacts of climate change. The burden of climate change has been thematised and cost-sharing strategies heatedly debated. The need for fairness in sharing the burden of climate change has been argued to consider national economies, the world society but also balance inbetween generations. A warming global earth was recently revealed to hold advantages (Puaschunder, 2017a, b). Based on state-of-the-art welfare function measurements and economic productivity parameters, the economic gains and productivity-efficiency benefits from a warming earth were recently captured (Puaschunder, 2017a, b). Contemporary Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measurements served as basis for estimations about the productivity of the agriculture, industry and service sectors around the warming globe. Results naturally build the intellectual basis for the climatorial imperative – advocating for the need for fairness in the distribution of the global earth benefits among nations based on Kant’s (1983/1993) imperative to only engage in actions one wants to experience themselves being done to oneself. Passive neglect of action on climate mitigation is argued as an active injustice to others. Countries passive or agnostic about global warming mitigation that reap benefits from a warming earth should therefore be obliged to finance international aid for those that are directly and negatively impacted by climate change – for instance, grant automatic asylum to climate refugees. In addition, building on common and international law, those countries that have better means of protection or conservation of the common climate should also face a greater responsibility to protect the earth (Puaschunder, 2016). All these efforts should alleviate the contemporary global governance predicament that seems to pit today’s generation against future world inhabitants in a trade-off of economic growth versus sustainability. Deriving respective policy recommendations and incentives to spread the prospective global warming gains for the wider climate change community around the globe and over time is aimed at ensuring that the shared benefits of climate change reach all contemporary and future world inhabitants around the globe in an economically efficient, legally sound and ethically equitable but also practically feasible way.

Climate in the 21st Century: A Macroeconomic Model of Fair Global Warming Benefits Distribution to Grant Climate Justice Around the World and Over Time

Climate justice accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the current post-COP21 Paris agreement climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, the financialization of the ambitious goals has leveraged into a blatant demand. In the weighting of the burden of global warming, the benefits of a warming earth have been neglected since recently. Following the introduction of the gains from climate change (Puaschunder, 2017), this article proposes a model to distribute the benefits of a warming earth in a fair way based on which countries are losing and which countries are winning from a warming earth until 2100. A macroeconomic cost-benefit analysis thereby aids to find the optimum solution on how to distribute climate change benefits and burden within society. When unidimensionally focusing on estimated GDP growth given a warmer temperature, over all calculated models assuming linear, prospect or hyperbolic gains and losses, the world will be gaining more than losing until 2100. Based on the WL index of 188 countries of the world, less countries (n=78) will gain more from global warming until 2100 than more countries (n=111) will lose from a warming earth. Based on the overall WLTT index factored by GDP per inhabitant, global warming benefits are demanded to be redistributed in a fair way to offset climate change loser countries for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts and to instigate a transition into renewable energy. Adding onto contemporary climate fund raising strategies ranging from emissions trading schemes (ETS) and carbon tax policies as well as financing climate justice through bonds as viable mitigation and adaptation strategies, climate justice is introduced to comprise of fairness within a country but also among different nation states in a unique and unprecedented tax-and-bonds climate change gains and losses distribution. Thereby, climate change winning countries should be using taxation to raise revenues to offset the losses incurred by climate change. Climate change losers could raise revenues by issuing bonds that have to be paid back by taxing future generations. Regarding taxation, within the winning countries, foremost the gaining GDP sectors should be taxed. Climate justice within a country should also pay tribute to the fact that low- and high-income households share the same burden proportional to their dispensable income, for instance enabled through a progressive carbon taxation. Those who caused climate change could be regulated to bear a higher cost through carbon tax in combination with retroactive billing through inheritance tax. Deriving respective policy recommendations for the wider climate change community in the discussion of the results is aimed at ensuring to share the burden but also the benefits of climate change within society in an economically efficient, legally equitable and practically feasible way.

Adapting to climate changes: The challenge for rural farmers in the forest and southern Guinea savanna ecologies of Nigeria

Agriculture provides food for the ever growing population, supplies raw material for industrial sector and generates foreign exchange for economies. However, the onset and threat of climate change imposes stresses on rural farming activities given that agricultural activities are largely rain-fed in Nigeria. The research design adopted was the survey method with a population sample of 600 questionnaires and interview guide administered to 10 rural farming communities in Oyo and Osun States located within the forest and southern guinea savanna ecologies of Nigeria. Lack of capital (61.1% in Oyo and 57.2% in Osun) among other constraints such as lack of information, shortage of labour, lack of access to water, and poor health were identified as constraints to climate change adaptation by farmers. More than 80% (88.7% and 82.6%) of farmers acknowledged the climate had changed over the past 5-10 years mainly in terms of decrease in rain and change in its timing. The main implications for climate change are deterioration in quality of life, increased migration, and threats to social cohesion among others. The paper concludes that, the burden of climate change cannot be borne alone by rural farmers and recommends a rural development policy in providing support to rural farmers facing climate risks.

Sunny Side Up! From Climate Change Burden Sharing to Fair Global Warming Benefits Distribution: Groundwork on the Metaphysics of the Gains of Global Warming and the Climatorial Imperative

Climate change has become reality. In the very many contemporary writings about global warming, the discussion has been centred around the negative impacts of climate change. The burden of climate change has been thematised and cost-sharing strategies heatedly debated. The need for fairness in sharing the burden of climate change has been argued to considering national economies, the world society but also balance inbetween generations. In the current frustration over the neglect of interest in ratifying intergovernmental climate agreements, the question arises whether the incentive structure of burden sharing models is appropriate to move the very many we need for climate stabilization. Only for these reasons, the following article sheds novel light on global warming from an almost unprecedentedly covered angle: The benefits of a warming earth! Considering climate change only as problematic is challenged as unidimensional. The article therefore pursues a more creative approach to overcome the obstacle of climate change. While the contemporary climate negotiations may be stuck in the one-sided grilling to share burden lowering participation motivation; unravelling the unprecedentedly described benefits arising from a warming earth may help build a more whole-rounded participatory incentive structure. State-of-the-art welfare function measurements and economic productivity parameters become the basis for conclusions about a fair spread of the gains and benefits from a warming earth. Contemporary Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measurements serve as basis for estimations about the productivity of the agriculture, industry and service sectors around the world in a changing temperature. Based on the cardinal temperatures for the agriculture, industry and service sectors productivity, the average temperature per country around the world as well as climate projections of the year 2100 under the business as usual path, this article reveals for the very first time climate winners and losers around the world. Overall and simply seen from a narrow-minded GDP perspective, the world will macroeconomically benefit more from climate change until 2100 than lose. Winning and losing from a warming earth is significantly positively correlated with the Paris COP 21 emissions country percentage of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) for ratification, leading to the conclusion that the countries that have the longest time horizon regarding a warming earth also lack motivation to mitigate global climate change. The paper concludes with introducing the climatorial imperative – advocating for the need for fairness in the distribution of the global earth benefits among nations based on Kant’s imperative to only engage in actions one wants to experience themselves being done to them. Passive neglect of action on climate mitigation is an active injustice to others. While the method to measure the gains from climate change can certainly be refined in future studies, this article is meant as very first preliminary step to open a gate to legal codifications and policy work to settle for a right, just and fair distribution of benefits from our common warming mother earth. The introduction of the gains from climate change is a novel approach that should solely be seen in connection to the imperative to distribute the gains in a fair manner among all world inhabitants. Focusing on gains may serve as means to hopefully draw attention to climate change of agnostic market actors or those who shy away from action given the overall negative connotation of climate change burden sharing and economic productivity loss aversion.

The development of a method to determine the burden of climate change on different health outcomes at a local scale: a case study in Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Climate change impacts human health in a variety of ways. Variables including the climate-related risk factor, the health outcome and location all determine the nature and extent of the impact. The existence of different pathways and endpoints presents a problem for quantifying and comparing impacts. Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) provides a common scale, whereby the impact of climate change on both acute and chronic health outcomes can be compared. This study presents a methodology to calculate the impact of climate change on human health at a local scale, using cardiovascular disease (CVD) and meteorological disaster-related injuries (DRIs) in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, as applied case studies. An additional very fine scale assessment of CVD conducted at the neighbourhood level to demonstrate the importance of conducting risk assessments at a local level. The comparative results calculated the impact of climate change in 2050 to be 16.866 DALY/100,000 population for CVD and 0.645 DALY/100,000 for meteorological DRIs. The actual impact of climate change by 2050 on CVD is judged to be higher, although the relative risk was projected to be lower (1.006, compared to 1.263 for meteorological DRIs). The fine scale assessment revealed the variations in the projected impact of climate change on CVD for all administrative zones in Osaka Prefecture. The range of impacts varied from 0 to 114.29 DALY/100,000. The results demonstrate the applicability of using DALY to quantify the impact of climate change on different health outcomes, using a transferable methodology, and provide information that enables evidence-based prioritisation of climate change adaptation strategies at a local scale.

Thermal Control, Weather, and Aging.

The purpose of this review is to highlight the latest developments in the field of weather and health with a focus on the elderly. The current state of knowledge is summarized and open questions and emerging fields of research are discussed. It is expected that climate change will lead to higher global average surface temperatures and more extreme climatic conditions. Previous studies have shown that non-optimal temperatures are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, specifically in elderly people. Future research fields comprise e.g., synergistic effects between meteorological variables and air pollution; long-term impacts of temperature changes; novel unraveling the underlying pathways using blood biomarkers; the association between temperature and mental health; and urban planning and adaptation processes. Understanding the health impacts associated with changes in thermal conditions requires multidisciplinary approaches. Adaptation processes, as well as improvements in urban planning and warning systems, can help reduce the predicted burden of climate change, especially in the elderly.

Mapping Climate Justice in the Twenty-first Century

Climate justice accounts for the most challenging global governance goal. In the current climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, high and low income households but also developed and underdeveloped countries as well as various overlapping generations are affected differently. This article maps international climate change mitigation and adaptation regimes in order to derive fair climate stability implementation strategies. Based on insights on the current endeavor to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation around the globe, a 3-dimensional climate justice approach will be introduced to share the burden of climate change fair within society. First, climate justice within a country should pay tribute to the fact that low- and high income households share the same burden proportional to their dispensable income, for instance enabled through a progressive carbon taxation. Those who caused climate change could be regulated to bear a higher cost through carbon tax in combination with retroactive billing through inheritance tax. Secondly, fair climate change burden sharing between countries comprises of argumentations that those countries benefiting more from a stable climate, hence those with a larger landscape or higher population, who have more access to climate than others, should also bear a higher burden of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Countries that reap benefit from a warming earth should be obliged to finance international aid for those who are impacted negatively by climate change, e.g., climate refugees. In addition, building on case and international law, those countries that have better means of protection or conservation of the common climate should also face a greater responsibility to protect the earth. Thirdly, climate justice over time is proposed in an innovative climate change burden sharing strategy. Innovative compensation schemes to share the burden of climate change with bonds help weight the burden of climate change more equally between today’s and tomorrow’s society. A climate tax-and-bonds mix could subsidize the current world industry for transitioning to green solutions and future generations, who will enjoy a less carbon intensive industry and more stable climate but should repay those bonds. Thereby the current generation is advised to mitigate climate change financed through bonds to remain financially as well off as without mitigation while improving environmental well-being of future generations. This respective intergenerational tax-and-transfer policy-mix could turn climate change mitigation into a Pareto-improving strategy. All these efforts should alleviate the contemporary global governance predicament that seems to pit today’s generation against future world inhabitants in a trade-off of economic growth versus sustainability. Deriving respective policy recommendations for the wider climate change community is aimed at ensuring to share the burden but also the benefits of climate change within society, between countries and over time in an equitable and fair way.

Global Warming and Its Health Impact.

Since the mid-19th century, human activities have increased greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the Earth's atmosphere that resulted in increased average temperature. The effects of rising temperature include soil degradation, loss of productivity of agricultural land, desertification, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystems, reduced fresh-water resources, acidification of the oceans, and the disruption and depletion of stratospheric ozone. All these have an impact on human health, causing non-communicable diseases such as injuries during natural disasters, malnutrition during famine, and increased mortality during heat waves due to complications in chronically ill patients. Direct exposure to natural disasters has also an impact on mental health and, although too complex to be quantified, a link has even been established between climate and civil violence. Over time, climate change can reduce agricultural resources through reduced availability of water, alterations and shrinking arable land, increased pollution, accumulation of toxic substances in the food chain, and creation of habitats suitable to the transmission of human and animal pathogens. People living in low-income countries are particularly vulnerable. Climate change scenarios include a change in distribution of infectious diseases with warming and changes in outbreaks associated with weather extreme events. After floods, increased cases of leptospirosis, campylobacter infections and cryptosporidiosis are reported. Global warming affects water heating, rising the transmission of water-borne pathogens. Pathogens transmitted by vectors are particularly sensitive to climate change because they spend a good part of their life cycle in a cold-blooded host invertebrate whose temperature is similar to the environment. A warmer climate presents more favorable conditions for the survival and the completion of the life cycle of the vector, going as far as to speed it up as in the case of mosquitoes. Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include some of the most widespread worldwide illnesses such as malaria and viral diseases. Tick-borne diseases have increased in the past years in cold regions, because rising temperatures accelerate the cycle of development, the production of eggs, and the density and distribution of the tick population. The areas of presence of ticks and diseases that they can transmit have increased, both in terms of geographical extension than in altitude. In the next years the engagement of the health sector would be working to develop prevention and adaptation programs in order to reduce the costs and burden of climate change.

Burden of Climate Change on Malaria Mortality

Burden of Climate Change on Malaria Mortality

Mapping Climate Justice in the 21st Century

A 3-dimensional climate justice approach is introduced to share the burden of climate change right, just and fair within society. First, climate justice within a country should pay tribute to the fact that low- and high income households share the same burden proportional to their dispensable income, for instance enabled through a progressive carbon taxation. Secondly, fair climate change change burden sharing between countries comprises of argumentations that those countries benefiting more from a warmer climate, should also bear a higher burden of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Thirdly, climate justice over time is proposed in an innovative bonds climate change burden sharing strategy.

Mitigating Greenhouse Effect in India through Gradual Shift to Renewable Energy

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased from an average of 6.3 Pg-C year -1 during 1990-99 to 7.8 Pg-C year -1 during 2000-09. In this context, although the global emissions fell to 0.5% in 2014, there is a need to drastically alter the current path of development because it has been observed that the burden of climate change is disproportionately high on developing countries such as India. Here, the rising global warming predicts a dangerous scenario on agriculture, poverty alleviation efforts and infant mortality rate. The current negative impact of energy generation by fossil fuels can be checked by prudent management of existing resources followed by enhanced use of renewable energy sources to meet the requirements of the world, without emulating the carbon-intensive model of the past. In this study strategies have been proposed for the next 40 years to allow government agencies to observe changes in the climate along with analysing the impact of mitigation measures implemented.