Climate change impacts many environmental, biological, psychological, social, and economic factors that affect mental health and psychosocial wellbeing directly and indirectly, including through changes to air and water quality, food security, housing, income, and ecosystem change. 

These risks are intertwined with mental health outcomes, as the stress of experiencing or even understanding or anticipating these environmental hazards may lead to distress, symptoms of anxiety, or other psychological impacts.

These climate-related hazards and long-term risks often overlap and create complex and compounding challenges. For instance, storms can trigger floods, which may lead to contaminated water, food shortages, and an increase in mosquito-breeding sites, all at once. 

Here are some of the ways climate change is worsening many of the known determinants of mental health:

Trauma

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that climate change is making extreme weather events, like floods and storms, more frequent and intense. These disasters can be potentially traumatic, exposing people to life-threatening situations or serious injuries. 

While it’s normal to feel distress after going through something like this, most people are resilient over time if they have access to support and resources. However, experiencing these events can also increase the risk of developing mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and even substance use disorders.

Heat exposure

Climate change is also making heatwaves more intense and longer-lasting, exposing more people to heat stress that can have a wide range of negative effects on mental health. 

A 2023 review found that evidence points to a higher risk of suicide during extreme heat, and emerging evidence suggests that people with certain pre-existing mental health problems are more likely to be hospitalized during periods of extreme heat and at higher risk of mortality during heatwaves. Exposure to extreme heat can also affect cognitive and physical development especially in children, with implications for a broad range of outcomes including socioemotional learning and abilities.

For workers exposed to extreme heat and those who lose income due to high temperatures, stressors to mental health may include distress resulting from the inability to take protective actions, changes in workload, and cascading financial problems.

Diseases

Climate change is also likely to impact mental health indirectly by worsening physical health. For example, climate change has been linked to a rise in infectious diseases like dengue and malaria, conditions which are likely to have significant negative mental health impacts both directly—through the physical toll of the disease, such as inflammation—and indirectly, like when people feel lonely or isolated due to being sick.

Sleep and physical activity

Sleep and and physical activity are key behaviours for both physical and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, and all are likely to be affected by climate change and ecological crises. Both thermoregulation (impacted by temperature changes) and circadian rhythm disruption (affected by changes in sunlight exposure) are critical pathways by which climate change is expected to directly influence mental health.

In high-latitude areas, changes in solar radiation exposure due to warming temperatures will likely have significant impacts on sleep. Seasonal variations in light—warmer, sunnier summers and warmer, darker winters—can disrupt circadian rhythms, contributing to sleep disruptions, especially in winter. Additionally, higher temperatures globally are emerging as a factor in sleep disturbances, with heat stress further disrupting sleep quality in both summer and winter.

Physical activity patterns are also likely to shift as a result of climate change, with warmer temperatures discouraging outdoor exercise in hotter regions during the summer. However, in high-latitude countries, warmer temperatures could actually encourage more outdoor activity. These changes, depending on the region, may impact mental health, as physical activity is closely linked to psychological well-being.

Food and water security

More frequent and intense droughts are leading droughts are impacting food security across the world and leading to increased levels of food and water insecurity, with consequent negative impacts on mental health. 

Food insecurity, as a result of climate change, could also lead to a decrease in fruit and vegetable consumption, worsening nutrition and negatively affecting mental health and children’s brain development. 

Prolonged droughts can devastate agriculture, leaving communities poorer, increasing the risks of malnutrition and developmental delays in children, and even displacement as people are forced to leave their homes in search of better conditions.

Conflict and violence

Emerging evidence shows that climate-related stressors, like extreme weather events and heatwaves, can contribute to a rise in violent behaviors, including gender-based violence. This can have serious, long-lasting impacts on the physical and mental health of those affected, creating a ripple effect of harm across communities. 

Climate change can also contribute, together with other factors, in escalating armed conflict and forced migration, especially in agricultural regions. Exposure to armed conflict has been shown to be linked with higher rates of mental health problems, with WHO estimates indicating that, among people who have experienced war or other conflict in the previous 10 years, one in five (22%) will have depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

Inequality and Poverty

Climate change is leading to higher levels of inequality worldwide and pushing more and more people into poverty, making existing vulnerabilities worse, and deepening inequality.

Since poverty and poor mental health are closely linked and can influence each other, this creates yet another way that climate change indirectly affects mental well-being.

Certain groups are particularly vulnerable to the mental health impacts of climate change. These may include people living in areas prone to natural hazards, low-income communities, indigenous populations, children and young people, and individuals already living with mental health challenges.

This is particularly true in low- and middle-income countries, despite the fact that such countries have historically emitted low levels of greenhouse gasses. Furthermore, indigenous people may be more likely to define well-being in terms of harmony with natural environments, which are significantly disrupted by climate change. They may also be more reliant on natural resources for their subsistence and livelihoods. As a result, they may be more strongly affected by the loss of even small amounts of land or wildlife or by other climate-related impacts. 

It’s important to remember that vulnerability is not the same for everyone—it depends on the specific context a person is living in. Understanding who is vulnerable and in what way requires careful assessment of unique circumstances. No single factor, like age or socioeconomic status, automatically makes someone vulnerable, but when multiple challenges overlap, the risks increase.

For example, an older adult, someone with lower income, a person living in a drought-prone area, or someone with a chronic illness may face challenges. But when someone faces several of these factors at the same time, the impact is much greater. Vulnerability is shaped by a combination of factors, not just one, and understanding these layers helps us better support those at higher risk.

Children and Adolescents

Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their developing bodies and minds, as well as their reliance on caregivers, which make them more susceptible to environmental hazards like extreme heat, air pollution, and water contamination. Despite this, not one of the 160 existing national adaptation policies across the world include considerations around children’s mental health (as of July 2024).

Psychologically, children and adolescents may struggle to cope with the stress and uncertainty caused by climate-related disasters or the perceived inaction of adults. For children already living with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities, these challenges can be even greater, putting them at heightened risk of worsening symptoms. There is growing consciousness and distress among young people over the prospect of living in a world of rising temperatures and climate unpredictability. Exposure to extreme weather events can expose young people to significantly stressful experiences that harm their physical health and community wellbeing.  

Additionally, children’s limited understanding of environmental hazards and their potential consequences, and adolescents’ higher likelihood of taking risks, can lead to unintended prolonged exposure to hazards, further compromising their health.

Workers

Climate change has also been shown to have a major impact on workers across many sectors, including those working under extreme heat conditions outdoors, or in indoor workplaces without adequate cooling. A report by the International Labor Organisation highlighted how climate change poses health risks for 70% of the world’s workforce, including risks to mental health. 

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the connection between climate change and mental health. However, despite this growing interest, mental health still tends to be overshadowed by other health concerns. For instance, only 5% of climate and health studies in Europe focus on mental health, compared to 31% on infectious diseases. Yet, the World Health Organization emphasizes that there is already enough evidence on the relationship between climate change and mental health to justify immediate action.

To address these knowledge gaps, we need to broaden the scope of research on climate and mental health. This means going beyond studying only the direct effects of climate change to also exploring factors that increase vulnerability and resilience, the mechanisms through which climate change impacts mental health, what mental health interventions are appropriate in the context of a changing climate, as well as what are the mental health co-benefits coming from climate action.

It’s important to examine how climate change impacts different communities and to use culturally relevant research methods. Engaging communities directly in research, studying health systems and policies, and focusing on practical applications of this knowledge are all critical steps.

Efforts are also underway to explore how individuals and communities can manage the mental health impacts of climate change. Although coping strategies are being implemented worldwide, many have yet to be systematically evaluated in the context of climate change. More research is needed to understand their effectiveness and to refine approaches that can truly support individuals and communities facing climate-related mental health challenges.

With growing interest in understanding how climate change impacts mental health, terms like climate anxiety, eco-anxiety, solastalgia, environmental distress, ecological grief, and climate-related psychological distress have emerged to describe the emotional responses of people facing the reality of climate change.

More research is needed to better understand these concepts, including the factors that make some people more vulnerable and whether specific prevention or support measures are necessary as well as their relationship with mental health problems. It’s important to recognize that these reactions are often natural, understandable responses to the overwhelming scale of the climate crisis. Most people, with the right support from their family and community and social support and health systems, can manage these emotions without needing clinical intervention. In fact, how we talk about mental health in the context of climate change matters. The language we use should normalize these feelings and reinforce people’s resilience, rather than stigmatize or label them as “traumatized.”

Engaging in climate action has been hypothesized to  be potentially beneficial in managing these reactions, for some people. People who take action can often report feeling more connected to others and experiencing a sense of purpose. However, some may also feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem, which can lead to distress. More research is needed to understand how climate action can protect and promote mental health and how good mental health, in turn, can fuel stronger climate action.