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. 2024 Feb 23;19(3):031004.
doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad29a9.

A better integration of health and economic impact assessments of climate change

Anton Orlov  1 , Jessie Schleypen  2 , Kristin Aunan  1 , Jana Sillmann  1   3 , Antonio Gasparrini  4 , Malcolm N Mistry  4   5
Affiliations

A better integration of health and economic impact assessments of climate change

Anton Orlov et al. Environ Res Lett. .

Abstract

Climate change could lead to high economic burden for individuals (i.e. low income and high prices). While economic conditions are important determinants of climate change vulnerability, environmental epidemiological studies focus primarily on the direct impact of temperature on morbidity and mortality without accounting for climate-induced impacts on the economy. More integrated approaches are needed to provide comprehensive assessments of climate-induced direct and indirect impacts on health. This paper provides some perspectives on how epidemiological and economic impact assessments could be better integrated. We argue that accounting for the economic repercussions of climate change on people's health and, vice versa, the consequences of health effects on the economy could provide more realistic scenario projections and could be more useful for adaptation policy.

Keywords: climate change; economy; health; model integration.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare no financial and non-financial conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Temperature-induced impacts on economic growth by 2050 relative to 2010 under RCP4.5, which are estimated using the econometric model from Burke et al (2018) and Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project data. The circles show countries within a region. (b) Life expectancy vs. GDP per capita. The circles show countries within a region. Source: data on life expectancy is from United Nations Population Division (the 2022 Revision of World Population Prospects) and data on GDP per capita is from World Bank (Word Development Indicators database).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Climate-economy-health modelling interface.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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