•Climate change and the carbon economy as estimated here are responsible for 5 million deaths each year today and cause illness in tens of million people globally comparable to the third leading cause of preventable death with a similar societal impact as tobacco use (see: Health Impact Climate/Carbon)
• The carbon economy claims the largest share of this impact, in particular
due to toxic air pollution, at over 4.5 million deaths a year today
• Climate change is estimated to be responsible for 400,000 deaths
each year, particularly due to hunger and communicable diseases in the
lowest-income countries
• By 2030, the annual death toll is estimated to rise to 6 million, including close to 5.5 million deaths due to the carbon economy, and over 600,000 as a result of climate change • Inaction on climate change could claim well over 100 million lives in the twenty year period to 2030
• Reducing emissions will rapidly diffuse risks to populations due to the
carbon economy and generate co-benefits for human health, although
the effect on the burden of disease will persist for decades
• Constraining climate change will have less of a beneficial effect on
its near-term health impacts given that an additional half a degree of
warming is now virtually inevitable in the decades immediately ahead
• Climate-change-linked health concerns are therefore an urgent priority
for policies aimed at adapting to climate change, since the accelerating rate of change is outpacing the ability of expected large-scale gains in socio-economic development to lessen key health vulnerabilities in lower-income countries. View complete findings
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