Justice should be at the centre of assessments of climate change impacts on health
Panagiota Kotsila, Isabelle Anguelovski
Abstract
Several reports, such as the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change,1,2 analyse and quantify the impacts of a changing climate on human health, bring attention to the compounding effects of climate stressors on health, and call for reducing the use of fossil fuels as an important mitigation measure with health co-benefits. However, the health community should not treat climate change as an equalising threat separate from the historical injustices that affect the differential positions of people in relation to health risks at both global and local levels.
Topics & Concepts
Climate changeClimate justiceEconomic JusticeEnvironmental justiceEnvironmental planningEnvironmental scienceEnvironmental resource managementPolitical scienceEnvironmental healthPsychologyMedicineEcologyLawBiologyClimate Change and Health ImpactsHealth and Conflict StudiesGlobal Public Health Policies and Epidemiology