The Climate Change Commission has released its Climate Change and Health extension to its original Critical Decade report, finding that climate change will result in prolonged and increasingly severe heatwaves, increasingly severe pandemics and mass population displacement.

 

“The risks to human health from climate change include: injuries and fatalities related to heatwaves and other severe weather events; spread of some infectious diseases from rising temperatures and changes in rainfall; water and food contamination from rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme events,” the report found.

 

The report made the following key findings:

  • Australia is getting hotter, leading to increased heat-related deaths and disease
  • More frequent and severe extreme events can seriously harm our health.
  • As the climate changes, infectious diseases will rise
  • Climate change poses risks for Australians’ mental health

 

The full report can be found here