What Are the Consequences of Climate Change?

Access to clean water is essential for life, health, and livelihoods. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of droughts and floods and raise sea levels. These phenomena will make access to clean water even more difficult.

• Food security is impacted by climate change. Droughts, temperature fluctuations, wildfires, storms, pests, diseases, and floods can damage crops. Increasing malnutrition threatens the health and survival of women and children, as well as people living with HIV who rely on proper nutrition for effective antiretroviral treatment.

• As obvious consequences of climate change, displacement and migration of families almost always have a negative impact on children. In such conditions, children are at increased risk of abuse and trafficking. In the aftermath of natural disasters, children are sometimes forced to drop out of school and work to help their families recover.

• Diseases like malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease, which are carried by insects, are directly affected by temperature changes. Carrier insects can now reproduce in regions that were previously too cold and are now present in many northern countries.

• The intensification of extreme weather events also puts populations at risk; they destroy homes and workplaces, damage crops, contaminate water sources, and separate families.

•Smoke from burning fossil fuels in homes, buses, cars, and factories increases greenhouse gas emissions. It worsens climate change while polluting the air we breathe, causing health problems.