Tackling climate change and its impact on health

Climate change is the greatest threat to global health and wellbeing (Maslin, et al., 2025), including by threatening human rights (Meier, et al.,2022), livelihoods (Banu & Fazal, 2025), infrastructure (Ng, 2021) and health services (Braithwaite, et al., 2024). 

Climate change health and well-being impacts are distributed unequally due to the complex dynamic interactions of various socioeconomic, sociodemographic and sociocultural determinants (Friel 2022). Rural and regional localities are likely to experience significant impacts given the nature of rural economies compounded by predicted more frequent and more intense acute extreme weather events on a background of increased heating and drying for inland Australia. The Grampians region is projected in experience increased numbers of hotter days in various locations and less rainfall relative to long term averages, with both Ballarat and Horsham projected to have an average increase in temperature of 0.9-1.8c by the 2030s (Grampians Region Climate Adaptation Strategy 2021-2025); although the trajectory of increase in temperature is not clear and differs in various locations, global temperatures are predicted to exceed an average of 1.5c of warming over 2025-2029 (WMO, 2025) .  

In March 2023 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Synthesis Report of its sixth assessment cycle: Summary for Policy Makers (IPCC, 2023), with very high confidence stating that there is a “rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all” (paragraph C.1) and that “deep, rapid, and sustained mitigation and accelerated implementation of adaptation actions in this decade would reduce future losses and damages related to climate change for humans and ecosystems” (paragraph C.2),  while “implementing both mitigation and adaptation actions together and taking trade-offs into account supports co-benefits and synergies for human health and well-being” (paragraph C.4.3) 

The “rapidly closing window” compels mitigation and adaptation action by Australian governments, institutions and individuals. The Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2023 – 2027 reiterated Victoria’s priority to tackle climate change and its impact on health; the GPHU commenced its climate change and health work plan to address this priority in 2023. One output of our work with many partners has been the development of the Climate Handbook for Health Services (below). 

The Grampians Local Health Service Network Climate Handbook for Health Services was developed by regional and rural health services for health services, and sets out practical information, examples, tools, and tips for teams to guide health sector mitigation and adaptation actions in response to our changing climate. Additionally the Handbook identifies health services as “anchor institutions” - long-standing trusted local organisations - able to join with leaders and residents in their local communities to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change together, further safeguarding the well-being of their communities and their own operational sustainability.

The GLHSN Climate Handbook for Health Services can be accessed here 

For more information please contact Professor Rosemary Aldrich, Grampians Public Health Unit, phu@gh.org.au 

Note: The documents GLHSN Health care in a changing climate: evidence for action and GLHSN Health Resource Stewardship manual are coming soon

Banu, N., Fazal, S. (2025). Climate Change, Livelihood Crisis and Resilience: An Introduction. In: Banu, N., Fazal, S. (eds) Livelihoods and Well-Being in the Era of Climate Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81132-6_1  

Braithwaite, J., Leask, E., Smith, C. L., Dammery, G., Brooke-Cowden, K., Carrigan, A., ... & Zurynski, Y. (2024). Analysing health system capacity and preparedness for climate change. Nature climate change, 14(5), 536-546. 

Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning Grampians Region Climate Adaptation Strategy 2021-2025)  

Friel, S. (2022). Climate change, society, and health inequities. The Medical Journal of Australia, 217(9), 466 

IPCC, 2023: Climate change 2023: Synthesis report, summary for policymakers. Contribution of working groups i, II and III to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change [core writing team, h. Lee and j. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland 

Maslin, M., Ramnath, R. D., Welsh, G. I., & Sisodiya, S. M. (2025). Understanding the health impacts of the climate crisis. Future Healthcare Journal, 12(1), 100240. 

Meier, B. M., Bustreo, F., & Gostin, L. O. (2022). Climate change, public health and human rights. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 13744. 

Ng, W. S. (2021). Impact of climate change on infrastructure. In Industry, innovation and infrastructure (pp. 489-497). Cham: Springer International Publishing.\ 

Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (2024). Victoria’s Climate Science Report, 2024  

WMO, 2025. Global climate predictions show temperatures expected to remain at or near record levels in coming 5 years