Climate & Health Explained

Chapter 3: Climate Services for Health

Climate services can help health professionals and decision makers better understand the influence of climate and weather conditions on health; to anticipate when, where and who may be at greatest risk.

This knowledge enables them to detect, monitor, predict, minimize, and manage climate related health risks, resulting in more lives saved, more cases treated, reduced disease burdens, and cost savings made in service delivery, as well as increased resilience of health systems to climate shocks and stressors.

Tailoring climate information for use in the health sector requires strong partnerships and collaboration between the producers and users of climate information.

Demand from the health sector is already spurring action and innovation in climate and weather science across many areas. For example:

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Early warnings are saving lives. Deaths from extreme weather decreased by 73% in countries with climate-informed health early warning systems, but only by 21% in countries without them in 2014-2023 compared to 2000-2009.1 12024 Report of the Lancet Countdown The UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative aims to ensure every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems by the end of 2027.

Extreme weather events are forecasted more precisely and farther in advance.

Satellite imagery and air quality monitoring data are being blended to predict where and when air quality may become a public health hazard.

Environmental conditions that can compromise water quality or provide the ideal setting for disease vector breeding are now identifiable.

Advances in data visualization and processing can help explain complex health risk dynamics better than ever; and thanks to improving interoperable data management systems, this information is increasingly accessible to health analysts.

Social and behavioural sciences often play a critical role in identifying how communities and individuals perceive environmental risks, understand change and use information to make decisions about protecting their health.

Stronger collaboration between the health and climate sectors is still needed.

Although 81% of  WMO Member countries provide climate services for health, only 23% of Ministries of Health reported having at least one climate-informed public health surveillance system.

Implementation of health early warning systems ranges from 35% for vector-borne diseases and 33% for heat-related illness, to just 10% for mental and psychosocial health, 14% for non-communicable diseases, and 14% for malnutrition and foodborne diseases. Only 5% of countries reported a health early warning system for impacts on health-care facilities.

Source: 2024 Report of the Lancet Countdown

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