In the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, countries made important commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and scale up adaptation to climate change. But more needs to be done. As many have noted, the world is recklessly late in agreeing to take action. The stakes are high. WHO estimates that climate change is already causing tens of thousands of deaths every year. These deaths arise from more frequent epidemics of diseases like cholera, the vastly expanded geographical distribution of diseases like dengue, and deaths that follow extreme weather events, like heatwaves and floods. Experts predict that, by 2030, climate change will be causing an additional 250 000 deaths each year from malaria, diarrhoeal disease, heat stress and undernutrition alone. The heaviest burden will fall on children, women and the poor, widening already unacceptable gaps in health outcomes.
