About this Research Topic

Background

The past year, 2023, has been so far the hottest on track, and, sure enough, it won’t keep this record long. We have already reached almost 1.5 C° above the preindustrial average, and the recent first Global Stocktake carried out at COP 28, which was held in Dubai last December (2023), revealed that we still need to enhance dramatically the efforts at the international level to meet Paris Agreement’s goals.

The impacts of climate change, along with other forms of anthropic pressures, not only involve devastating consequences for ecosystems, biodiversity and the resilience of the socio-ecological systems we live in, but, as it is emerging from the latest trends in scientific research, it poses under serious threat also public health and well-being.

As a matter of fact, COP28 hosted the first-ever Health Day. It was a critical occasion to start a deep reflection on the intricate interplay between climate change and health and develop solutions for climate-related health issues. The integration of health concerns into the climate agenda, however, represents only the very first step. Ambitious and bold actions are required to restore our trajectory closer to that needed to meet the goals agreed at COP21 in Paris (2015) and face effectively the challenges brought by the climate-related health crises.

The Health Day at COP28 was the occasion for 123 countries to endorse the ‘COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health”, a document which acknowledges the growing health impacts of climate change on communities, with particular regard to the most vulnerable ones, and the urgent need to develop climate-resilient, sustainable and equitable health systems.

The health effects of climate change are central among its myriad impacts: WHO forecasted that climate change will cause 250.000 additional deaths per year, between 2030 and 2050, and US$ 2 – 4 billion of direct damage costs annually by 2030. Climate change appears, indeed, as a threat and inequality multiplier, since it undermines social, physical, and economic conditions that sustain good health and further widen existing disparities within and between populations, where those who pollute the least, often suffer the most severe effects.

As air pollution, heat waves, water crisis, extreme weather events intensify, COP28 considerations are essential for maximizing the benefits to people’s health from stronger climate action. There is an urgent need to strengthen international and cross-sectoral cooperation, increase funding, foster multidisciplinary research and promote local initiatives in order to reduce emissions and build a climate-resilient health system.

Therefore, the present Research Topic aims to offer a wider perspective on the existing and emerging human climate change-related health issues and provide valuable insights for policy makers that work on the climate-health nexus.

Specific areas of interest to this Research Topic related to human health and the climate crisis include but are not limited to:

• Climate change-associated acute health emergencies and slow-onset physical and mental health conditions for populations of concern (indigenous, minorities, islands, Global South etc..);
• Co-benefits or antagonisms among climate actions, international initiatives on sustainable development and public health;
• NELD (Non Economic Loss and Damage) impacts on health (e. public health assessment metrics; modelling of climate-related risks; effects on youth, etc..);
• Adaptation strategies to absorb climate change impacts on health, with particular regards to the most vulnerable communities;
• Companies’ impacts on global health and strategies to reduce climate-related health risks (the effects of the new CSR European Directive, assessment frameworks, etc..);
• The role of sustainable finance and the business sector in supporting actions to halt climate change-induced health issues;
• Environmental determinants of health and the linkages between health, natural ecosystems status and climatic factors.

Keywords: climate change, climate crisis, human health, global health

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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