Adapting to Climate-Related Health Risks: The Economic Case for Climate Services for Health

Climate change is one of the defining public health crises of our time. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and deadly. Floods are spreading waterborne disease. Warmer temperatures are expanding the reach of mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue into communities that have never faced them before. Without stronger action, low- and middle-income countries could see nearly 16 million deaths from climate-related health impacts by 2050 and nearly $21 trillion in economic losses.

The consequences extend far beyond the health system. When people are sick, farmers can’t tend their crops, workers can’t earn wages, and families are forced to spend scarce savings on medical care instead of building better lives.

Protecting people requires more than responding to crises after they strike. It requires knowing what’s coming — and being ready. That means investing in what researchers call “climate services for health”: the data systems, early warning tools, disease surveillance networks, and resilient infrastructure that help communities anticipate and prepare for climate-driven health threats before they become emergencies.

New research by the World Resources Institute, commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation, makes the economic case for exactly that kind of investment. Drawing on a review of 46 World Bank-financed projects across 40 low- and middle-income countries and a cost-benefit analysis of projected health impacts from malaria, dengue, diarrhea, cholera, and heat-related illness, the study finds that climate services for health deliver exceptional returns — even under the most conservative assumptions.