Climate change will cause 250,000 deaths by 2030: WHO

NEW DELHI: Climate change will cause an additional 250,000 deaths from malaria, diarrhoeal disease, heat stress and under nutrition by 2030, a finding by World Health Organization (WHO) has stated.

The conclusion was drawn at a meeting held by the French government in Paris on July 8 to study actions taken to implement the Paris agreement in order to reduce health risks linked to climate change.

Experts noted that climate change was already causing tens of thousands of deaths every year. This is in addition to 7 million deaths caused by air pollution, a release by WHO said.


The biggest burden of the additional fatalities will be borne by children, women, older people and the poor, further widening the existing health inequalities.

To mitigate deaths due to climate change, participants focused on the need to measure the progress by countries in safeguarding health of the people, it said.

WHO has already published profiles on 40 countries.

During the conference, benefits of switching to cleaner energy sources were also discussed.

The participants also asked countries to develop a new approach to link investment in mitigating climate change with the expenditure on related healthcare costs, the release added.