Guest post: Health benefits of Paris climate goals could save millions of lives by 2040
On World Health Day in 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that “protecting human health is the ‘bottom line’ of climate change strategies”.
The WHO went on to describe climate change as “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”. This is because – through its effects on food security, heatwaves, floods, storms, wildfires, infectious diseases, air quality, migration, conflict and mental health – climate change both exacerbates existing health threats and creates new ones.