It was once a distant scientific debate. Today, climate change has become one of the greatest public health emergencies of the 21st century. For millions, its impacts are already here — not just through melting glaciers or rising sea levels, but through rising hospital admissions, breathless children, and deadly heatwaves.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that between 2030 and 2050, climate change may cause an additional 250,000 deaths annually due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress. But numbers alone cannot capture the reality many communities now face.
Take the searing summers across India. Each year, heatwaves grow longer and more intense, pushing vulnerable populations — the elderly, outdoor workers, pregnant women — beyond their physical limits. Heat exhaustion, kidney failure, heart attacks: these are not future threats; they are today’s emergencies.
Then there is the air we breathe. In 2020 alone, air pollution claimed an estimated 1.3–1.67 million lives in India, according to the Global Burden of Disease Report. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) silently infiltrates lungs, fueling a surge in asthma, chronic respiratory diseases, strokes, and lung cancer.
Meanwhile, mosquitoes are finding new homes. As rainfall patterns shift and temperatures rise, vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya, malaria, and Japanese encephalitis have spread to new regions. Changing climates have extended breeding seasons and altered transmission patterns, leaving public health systems scrambling to adapt.
But it doesn’t stop there. Climate change fuels floods and erratic rainfall, contaminating water sources and leading to outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and diarrheal diseases. These illnesses disproportionately affect children, pregnant women, and the poor — groups with the least capacity to cope.
COVID-19 revealed just how interconnected health, environment, and global systems truly are. A tiny virus crossing from animals to humans paralyzed the world, underscoring the fragile balance at the human-animal-environment interface. The pandemic reignited global attention on the One Health approach — a collaborative model recognizing that human health is inseparable from the health of animals and the environment.
In response, India has embraced this integrated vision with One Health Framework and National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH). Both led by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), they build integrated surveillance, adaptation, and response capacity.
The One Health Framework brings together diverse ministries — Health, Environment, Agriculture, Fisheries — along with scientific bodies like ICMR and ICAR. Surveillance systems now track zoonotic diseases across humans, animals, and wildlife. Thousands of healthcare workers, veterinarians, and wildlife professionals have been trained to detect and respond to emerging threats.
Launched in 2019, India’s NPCCHH strengthens climate-resilient healthcare. Over 10,000 healthcare workers trained; surveillance expanded to 500+ districts; State and District Action Plans are active nationwide. Green healthcare initiatives like solar-powered hospitals and real-time early warning systems help protect vulnerable populations from climate-sensitive diseases.
Yet challenges remain. Fragmented policies, limited coordination, and underfunded systems slow progress. The economic cost is staggering: pollution alone drains nearly 2% of India’s GDP each year in lost productivity and healthcare costs.
No Indian state consistently ranks high across environment, health, and development indicators — a stark reminder that isolated efforts won’t suffice. Only coordinated, data-driven action can truly build climate-resilient health systems.
As India leads global conversations under its G20 presidency with the theme “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” the message is clear: climate change is not only about saving polar bears or distant islands. It’s about saving lives today — in our cities, villages, and homes.
The health of our people and our planet are deeply entwined. The time for integrated, bold action is now.