Public Health Response to a Changing Climate

Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways. Learn what CDC is doing to prevent and adapt to the health effects of climate change.

The environmental consequences of climate change are happening now and are expected to increase in the future. Some of these changes will likely include:

• heat waves,
• heavy precipitation events and flooding,
• droughts,
• more intense hurricanes and storms,
• sea level rise, and
• air pollution.

Climate change, together with other natural and human-made health stressors, influences human health and disease in numerous ways. Some existing health threats will intensify and new health threats will emerge. Not everyone is equally at risk. Important considerations include age, economic resources, and location. Our Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative (CRSCI) is helping grantees from 13 jurisdictions use the five-step Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework to identify likely climate impacts in their communities, potential health effects associated with these impacts, and their most at-risk populations and locations. The BRACE framework then helps states develop and implement health adaptation plans and address gaps in critical public health functions and services.