What Canadians need to know about how climate change is affecting their health

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

Climate change is hurting us, and a global report released today warns the impact on people's health — especially the elderly, the young, and the vulnerable — will get far worse if leaders fail to commit to more ambitious targets at COP26, the upcoming United Nations conference on climate.

The world is already 1.2 C warmer than it was between 1850 and 1900, the pre-industrial period, and the latest report by the Lancet medical journal measures how that change is affecting people's health around the world. 

The authors found the health impacts of climate change are getting worse across every factor measured, including the physical and mental toll of extreme heat, the spread of infectious diseases, and decreasing crop yields and food insecurity. A total of 93 authors, including climate scientists, economists, public health experts and political scientists, contributed to the analysis. 

"When people are ... thinking about climate change off there in a far away, distant land, in a far distant future, these reports shatter that myth," said Ian Mauro, the executive director of the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg. Mauro was not involved in the Lancet report.

"They show that it is happening now, that it is real, and that the consequences at this relatively early stage in the climate game are tragic now. Just imagine decades into the future." 

It's a reality more Canadians have experienced this year — from drought to wildfire to deadly heat waves. But the Lancet authors also call out Canada as a country that has a gap between its carbon-cutting ambitions and its strategy to make it happen.

While the Lancet report's authors credit Canada's government with taking positive steps through carbon pricing and mandating new vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035, they warn more is needed. 

"At the average pace of decarbonization observed between 2015 and 2019, it would take Canada over 188 more years to fully decarbonize its energy system," stated a policy brief provided by the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

"Canada and the U.S. are the only G7 countries that have increased emissions since signing the Paris Agreement — and Canada's have grown the fastest, primarily due to oil and gas production."

The report, entitled a "Code Red for a Healthy Future," highlights this time as a fork in the road, a point at which leaders can either choose to lock the world into increased emissions and catastrophic global warming, or to focus on meeting the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

"Despite the gory headlines of doom and disaster, the best available science is still saying there's a pathway for us to achieve some level of human resilience that will create a healthy future for our kids and grandkids," Mauro said. 

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One prime example of the consequences of human-caused climate change is the deadly June 2021 heatwave, which is mentioned high up in the report.