Climate Change and Health

By Laura Lindner & Susanne Senninger

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

Climate change and its consequences pose a substantial threat to human health. Already today, the effects of the man-made climate crisis are being felt in many ways. These include the increased occurrence of extreme weather events such as heat, storms and floods, and the increase in food-, water- and vector-borne diseases. Other consequences of global climate change include droughts, landslides, and forest fires, as well as inadequate water supplies, water contamination, and famine. However, not only the physical but also the mental health of people affected by for example floods or crop failures can be severely concerned. For this reason, adaptation to climate change and its consequences is essential to protect human health. Since climate policy is one of the most cross-cutting policy areas, adaptation measures must be designed for very many sectors. These include the energy, transport and industrial sector as well as the agricultural, consumer and economic sector. However, occupational health and safety, construction and health sectors will also be affected by the global climate crisis and will have to implement adaptation measures as well.

For our final project, we wanted to address this important issue and decided to prepare a brochure on climate change and health, where we show the health hazards that climate change poses to the health of people living in Bavaria and tailored to that we point out ways in which political decision-makers can reduce these risks in the form of policies and measures to protect the health of citizens. Since the implementation of climate adaptation policies is mainly initiated by political decision makers, we have chosen them as the target group of our project. Specifically, our brochure aims to present the effects of the climate crisis on human health that have already occurred and those that are still to be expected for the state of Bavaria. On this basis, we provide recommendations for the design and implementation of adaptation measures for policy makers. For any health risk caused by cli-mate change we selected, we propose special political instruments for an adequate implementation of the adaptation policies. Particular attention is paid to vulnerable groups who are significantly at risk from climate change.