Climate Change Impacts on Health in Lower and Middle Income Countries: Understanding the Connections

Session Date: April 21, 2021

Session Description: Gina McCarthy, one of two recently appointed White House ‘Climate Change Czars’ called climate change the ‘the greatest public health challenge of our time.’ Climate change is expected to cause an additional 250,000 additional deaths annually worldwide between 2030 and 2050. One of the challenges of working at the nexus of climate change, health, and international development is working across disciplines to effectively improve public health outcomes by reducing climate related risks. In this session participants will be reminded of social and environmental determinants of health, and given a primer on basic manifestations of climate change and health impacts of climate change. Then, working in breakout groups, they will work to delve into a given scenario to identify impacts climate change may have on implementation and outcomes of health programming in different populations. Returning to plenary, findings from the breakout groups will be shared, and "real life" examples will be described by representatives from USAID and the US Institute of Peace. The session will end with discussion among participants and presenters.