The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that climate change is the biggest global threat to humanity in the 21st century [1, 2]. By 2050, climate change is expected to cause at least 250 000 deaths every year globally due to climate-related heat stress, malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea [3]. An additional health burden will arise from more indirect climate-related paths, including migration, conflicts, poverty, and disruption of healthcare and ecosystems. Climate change is not just a threat to future generations, but it is already an unfolding major planetary and health crisis. At accelerating speed in the past few years, the catastrophic impacts of global warming are evident with the increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events (i.e. heat waves, wind and dust storms, heavy rainfall and flooding, droughts, and wildfires), resulting in devastating consequences for human health worldwide [4, 5]. For example, Europe lived the hottest summer ever recorded in 2022, with record-breaking temperatures in many places in western and northern Europe (e.g. the UK with a record temperature of 40.3°C in Coningsby) [6]. At the same time, a severe drought had affected most of the Northern Hemisphere since the beginning of the year [7]. In both cases, recent attribution studies found that anthropogenic climate change played a crucial role in the severity of these events [8, 9]. The combination of long-lasting hot and dry conditions led to an exceptional wildfire season in Europe in terms of an increased number of fires, burnt areas and fire-related emissions. Extraordinary events like these lead to immediate loss of life and disturbances in healthcare services, adversely affect the health of patients with climate-sensitive diseases (cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, kidney and infectious diseases), and result in worse mental health, malnutrition and social crises (e.g. migration, conflicts) [10]. While for some individual hazards and specific locations and populations, climate change might result in a risk reduction (e.g. less humidity leading to lower exposure to mould) [11], there is overwhelming consensus on the deleterious effects on human health that climate change has today, which will be amplified in the future in absence of further efforts in terms of adaptation or mitigation strategies [12]. The enormous scale and unpredictable nature of the impacts of irreversible climate change have raised a sense of urgency for action among citizens, experts, and national and international organisations, both to attenuate the progressive warming, mitigate climate change impacts, and increase the resilience of health systems and populations. More importantly, public health experts highlight that tackling climate change could provide enormous opportunities for future generations. In particular, the 2022 Lancet Countdown Report states that this can be the biggest public health policy opportunity of the century, if health, well-being and equity are at the heart of the climate mitigation and adaptation plans [5].
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Conflict of interest: A.M. Vicedo-Cabrera, F. Forastiere, U. Gehring, A. Yorgancioglu, C.S. Ulrik and B. Hoffmann have no conflict of interest to declare. E. Melén has received consulting fees from ALK, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Sanofi outside the submitted work, and is a member of the ERS Environmental Health Committee. K. Katsouyanni declares projects funded from the Health Effects Institute, US, and from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme, which have sponsored travel for meetings or conferences, and she is a member of the ERS Environment and Health Committee and Committee on the Health Effects from Air Pollution (CIMEAP), UK Health Security Agency. K. Hansen has received support for attending meetings and/or travel from the ERS, European Lung Foundation, and eurILDreg and RARE-ILD project and he declares leadership or fiduciary role in eurILDreg and RARE-ILD project. P. Powell is an employee of the European Lung Foundation. B. Ward is an employee of the European Respiratory Society. Z.J. Andersen is Chair of the ERS Environment and Health Committee, and recipient of a grant from the Health Effects Institute, US, which has sponsored travel to a meeting.
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The statement has been developed by the authors together with the Environment and Health Committee of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Lung Foundation. It has subsequently been presented to and approved at the ERS Advocacy Council and presented to and approved by the Science Council of the ERS. Finally, to ensure full consensus, the statement has been presented, reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee of the ERS. We thank all the ERS assemblies and leadership bodies for their input to the paper.
