The threat to human health from climate change is so great that it could undermine the last fifty years of gains in development and global health, according to a major new Commission, published in The Lancet.

However, the report provides comprehensive new evidence showing that because responses to mitigate and adapt to climate change have direct and indirect health benefits -- from reducing air pollution to improving diet -- concerted global efforts to tackle climate change actually represent one of the greatest opportunities to improve global health this century.

The potentially catastrophic risk to human health posed by climate change has been underestimated, say the authors, and while the technologies and finance required to address the problem can be made available, global political will to implement them is lacking.

According to Commission co-Chair Professor Anthony Costello, Director of the University College London (UCL) Institute for Global Health, UK, "Climate change has the potential to reverse the health gains from economic development that have been made in recent decades -- not just through the direct effects on health from a changing and more unstable climate, but through indirect means such as increased migration and reduced social stability. However, our analysis clearly shows that by tackling climate change, we can also benefit health, and tackling climate change if fact represents one of the greatest opportunities to benefit human health for generations to come." 

The report shows that the direct health impacts of climate change come from the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, especially heat waves, floods, droughts and storms. Indirect impacts come from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, involuntary migration, displacement and conflicts.