Climate&Health.NRW – How climate change affects human health

Global climate change is already well advanced. Depending on the scenario, different degrees of warming can be expected. Even in the scenarios with a small increase in average temperature, it can be assumed that climate change will also have a significant impact on human health. Possible effects on human health caused by climate change include, for example

• the increased occurrence of zoonoses, new infectious agents and changed areas of spread (e.g. malaria in Europe),
• the increase in antimicrobial resistance and, as a result, multi-resistant pathogens,
• the effects of extreme weather events and heat waves on health
• the effects of a changed plant and fungal world with implications for allergies and mycoses, and
• other, as yet unforeseeable effects of the changed environment on health.

Based on these topics, there is a need to generate further findings in research and development. At the same time, however, the transfer of existing findings into application remains a challenge. This includes topics such as

• the implementation of primary prevention measures in the healthcare system and in public health promotion,
• the transformation of the healthcare system into a climate-resilient system in terms of processes and procedures as well as structures and infrastructures,
• the development of forward-looking measures that anticipate future developments and can thus address them in line with requirements, and
• the health-promoting design of living environments and living spaces.

The Climate&Health.NRW lighthouse was created to support networking in this key future field and to bring together the already excellent players in many areas in NRW in a powerful state-wide network.