Key sectors
- Climate change, health, and the financial sector: what are the linkages?
- The impacts of climate change are undisputedly multi-dimensional. This study looks at potential consequences to health, economies and ecology. The central premise is that climate change will affect the health of humans as well as the ecosystems and species on which we depend, and that these health impacts will have economic consequences.
Recent research has begun to explore how different sectors may be impacted by climate change and how they may be able to adapt. Sectors such as water, forestry, agriculture and health are likely to be particularly sensitive to changes in climate, and it is these sectors that are of key importance to vulnerable communities who rely more heavily on natural resources and ecosystems.
Taking the health sector as an example, the impacts will be widespread, with increases in malaria, higher mortality rates due to heat waves and more deaths and injuries related to extreme weather events. Public health infrastructure will need to adapt to these changes, with improved early warning mechanisms, modified primary and secondary care facilities and careful scenario planning. For the water sector, climate change is likely to cause increased pressure on water resources in some areas, while relieving them in others.
