Health Co-benefits of Climate Action
Examples of health co-benefits of climate actions by sector
Addressing climate change is an opportunity to improve health outcomes, strengthen communities, and boost social and economic resilience. Health co-benefits are secondary, sometimes unintended, benefits to human health that accrue from climate actions. Whether reducing emissions (mitigation) or building community preparedness and resilience to climate risks and impacts (adaptation), there are health co-benefits associated with many climate actions across all sectors.
Climate mitigation and adaptation actions can contribute to health co-benefits by protecting health and wellbeing from climate-related hazards and events, such as heatwaves, bushfires, air pollution, and disease hazards (e.g. food, water-borne pathogens). When actions are carefully designed, these health benefits can address social inequities by reducing risks and impacts to at-risk people, such as children, people over 65 years of age, people on low incomes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people who already have a medical condition and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Both mitigation and adaptation actions are needed to tackle climate change and planning them together is key. Importantly, failing to invest in climate adaptation and mitigation actions lead to greater economic and social costs that can affect health outcomes. Figure 1 below illustrates some of the different economic and social costs of climate inaction that can impact health across various settings.
Examples of cost savings related to climate initiatives in Victoria
Investing in climate adaptation and mitigation actions can lead to significant cost savings by reducing health burdens, energy demand, infrastructure damage, and economic disruptions.
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The development of this resource was funded through a VicHealth Impact Research Grant. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of VicHealth. We also acknowledge the generous contributions of state and local government policymakers who co-designed this resource.