Climate change is adding to a growing infectious disease burden – we need coordinated action now

Jan 18, 2023

A patient receiving healthcare from a nurse and a doctor.

Climate change is not just an environmental emergency, but a public health one too. Image: Pexels/RODNAE Productions

Shyam Bishen

Head, Centre for Health and Healthcare, Member of Executive Committee, World Economic Forum

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Climate Change is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Climate Change

Listen to the article

A graphic showing the effects of climatic, technological and demographic change on disease emergence, dynamics and spread.

Global changes have increased the risk of infectious disease outbreaks, despite significant improvements in sanitation and access to healthcare. Image: Nature.

A graphic showing climate change vulnerability and climate-sensitive health risks.

Climate change has both direct and indirect health impacts. Image: World Health Organization.

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.