Climate Justice and the Unequal Burden of Disease
The health impacts of rising temperatures fall unevenly across populations, creating profound justice concerns. Countries and communities that contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions often suffer most acutely from climate change’s health impacts while having the fewest resources to respond.
“Currently, lower-income countries—particularly those in tropical regions—bear the higher burden of climate-sensitive infectious diseases,” Dr. Madeleine Thomson and her colleagues wrote in a recent analysis. Tropical regions face heightened exposure to vector-borne diseases due to warm humid climates, disease-carrying insects, inadequate housing, poor infrastructure, and limited healthcare.
This combination leads to both higher disease risk and less resilience. When dengue outbreaks occur, wealthy countries can afford intensive mosquito control, public education campaigns, and robust healthcare responses. Lower-income countries often lack these resources, leading to higher infection rates and more severe outcomes.
Within countries, socioeconomic disparities create similar patterns. Communities with limited healthcare access, inadequate housing, and poor sanitation are far more susceptible to both heat-related health problems and climate-sensitive infectious diseases. People who can’t afford air conditioning, who work outdoors, or who live in densely built urban areas without green space bear disproportionate burdens.
As temperatures rise, previously cooler regions like Europe are becoming vulnerable to climate-sensitive diseases, yet the burden remains heaviest in places least equipped to respond. Pakistan’s malaria surge from 500,000 cases in 2021 to 1.3 million by 2024 exemplifies this injustice—climate-driven floods creating disease conditions in a country with limited public health infrastructure.
Thomson emphasizes that addressing climate health impacts requires ensuring vulnerable countries have access to tools, resources, and support needed to strengthen health systems. Adaptation alone isn’t enough without addressing the fundamental inequities that determine who suffers most from our warming world.