Global health injustice from climate change driven by consumption

Background

Climate change imposes unequal health burdens globally, harming vulnerable nations least responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A quantitative framework attributing this health damage directly to specific countries’ consumption patterns has been missing. This study quantifies the externalized human health costs of national consumption.

Methods

We developed a global methodological framework integrating climate impact models, Global Burden of Disease data, and multi-regional input-output (MRIO) modelling and life cycle impact assessment methods. We established spatially differentiated damage factors for 163 countries and regions, capturing the health burden of direct heat and cold exposure per degree of global warming. These were combined with Absolute Global Temperature Change Potentials for the seven major Kyoto Protocol GHGs to translate consumption-based emissions into disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), quantifying both mortality and morbidity.

Results

Results reveal profound inequities in climate-related harm, with high-income regions driving the burden. Average per-capita consumption in North America imposes a health burden equivalent to 34 days of healthy life lost per person annually across the global population, while causing negligible net harm domestically. Conversely, Sub-Saharan Africa endures 25 days of healthy life lost per person annually despite minimal emissions. South Asia also emerges as a heavily impacted net sufferer. Globally, net health damage exceeds 24 million DALYs per degree of sustained warming, concentrated in low- and medium-income regions.

Conclusions

We introduce a quantitative Health Injustice Index identifying net inducers and sufferers of climate health damage. By translating territorial emission metrics into the tangible metric of lost healthy life years, this framework provides a powerful, health-centric evidence base for climate accountability, supporting equitable climate policies globally.

Key messages

• High-income consumption drives climate health injustice. Average North American consumption costs the globe 34 days of healthy life annually, devastating low-emitting, vulnerable nations.

• Our quantitative Health Injustice Index translates abstract emissions into tangible lost healthy life years. This framework provides a powerful, health-centric tool for climate accountability.