Climate change threatens to reverse the gains in global child health and the reductions in global child mortality made over the past 25 years. There is broad recognition that greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are causing climate change.1,2 The problem of climate change transcends geopolitical boundaries and will have extensive impacts on child health and security (Fig 1).3 With implications for all of humanity, climate change will disproportionately affect children and the poor, magnifying existing disparities in social determinates of health.4,5
Changes in temperature and weather patterns are already occurring. Global surface temperatures were the highest ever recorded in 2016, and 9 of the past 10 years were the warmest on record.6 Dramatic changes to the climate are expected to occur within the life span of current pediatric patients. The 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessed that global...
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