Climate change affects our health and healthcare. Healthcare providers will have to accommodate changing needs and a growing burden of disease as climate change advances. The more severe health-related effects of climate change become, the greater the need for financial and human resources to treat them. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that climate change already contributes to 150,000 deaths every year.

But climate change talks and the resulting policies reveal that our decision-makers are not fully aware either of the harm climate change is doing to our health, or of the potential benefits cutting greenhouse gas emissions could bring to our well-being. Thus the health sector's voice is crucial in raising awareness among policy-makers and the public to frame and influence the climate debate.