The Lancet Global Health, February 2025
The climate crisis and human health: identifying grand challenges through participatory research
The climate crisis has been called the greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st century. In the past 5 years, record-breaking temperatures, extreme precipitation, and other severe weather events have occurred at an alarming rate.
These conditions have not only created new health threats, such as chronic kidney disease of unknown origin and expansion of the geographical range of mosquito-borne infectious diseases, but have exacerbated existing health challenges, including infectious diseases, mental health conditions, and malnutrition. Despite contributing the least to the climate crisis in terms of carbon emissions, low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and small-island developing states are disproportionally impacted by its effects. It is estimated that up to 3·6 billion people worldwide live in climate-vulnerable regions.