Our role in climate and health

Health impacts of climate change

Climate change alters our environment through rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and changing ecosystems. 

These changes affect human health in many ways, including:

• heat-related illness and death
• changes in how infectious diseases spread
• injuries and deaths during extreme weather events like
  • heatwaves
  • bushfires
  • floods and cyclones
• more and more severe chronic conditions
• psychological distress and mental health issues
• damage to housing, infrastructure and essential services that support health and wellbeing.

To limit these impacts, work is under way across government to make the Australian health system and communities resilient and responsive to a changing climate.

The National Health and Climate Strategy

Australia’s first National Health and Climate Strategy sets out a whole-of-government plan to address:

• the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change
• the health system’s contribution to climate change.

We are implementing this strategy from 2024 to 2028.

Pacific Climate and Health Resilience Package

The Pacific Climate and Health Resilience Package supports Pacific countries build climate-resilient and fair health systems. 

It builds on the leading role Pacific countries have taken on climate change in our region.

Achieving net zero

The Australian Government has committed to reducing emissions by 62% to 70% from 2005 levels by 2035.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) leads work to achieve net zero emissions in Australia by 2050.

The Net Zero Plan sets out how Australia will achieve a fair, orderly and efficient transition to net zero. 

Through implementation of the strategy, we are reducing health system emissions in alignment with the Net Zero Plan.

Building climate resilience

To effectively respond to the issues caused by climate change, we must understand the risks.

The Australian Climate Service’s National Climate Risk Assessment is Australia’s first national look at how climate change could affect the systems we rely on, including our health system.

The National Adaptation Plan, developed DCCEEW, sets out how the Australian Government will respond to the risks identified in the National Climate Risk Assessment. 

We are developing a related Health National Adaptation Plan to provide a consistent framework for climate and health adaptation across Australia.