Committee: World Health Organization

Topic: The health implications of climate change

Delegation: Republic of Italy
Delegate: Gisselle Cavagliano

Although Earth’s climate naturally changes over time, it is currently changing in ways that
most scientists agree are not natural. As a matter of fact, human activity is the cause. The
evidence for today’s rapid climate change includes sea level rise, global temperature rise,
warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, declining Arctic sea ice, and more intense and frequent
extreme weather. Climate change affects whether or not people have clean air, safe drinking
water, sufficient food, and secure shelter, all of which are social and environmental
determinants of health. With this in mind, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is
expected to cause 250,000 deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, heat stress, and
diarrhea.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 20% of Europe’s glaciers

melted between 1980 and 2000. A case in point would be Italy’s glacier, the Calderone, that
has been so greatly affected by climate change that experts say it will be gone by 2020. The
melted water from Italy’s glaciers contribute to rising sea levels as well as increasing global
temperature, since the ice is no longer present to reflect the sun’s rays back into space. Not
only does climate change affect Italian economy, but it also affects its citizens. Climate
change is leading to the risk of the re-emergence of previous endemic agents, or the arrival of
exotic communicable diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, Crimean-Congo fever,
West Nile fever or blue tongue. Protection strategies have been strengthened, but the risk is
increasing. Italy is also impacted by population movements, such as immigrants that qualify
as refugees because of economic and environmental factors. Human health is profoundly
affected by weather and climate. Climate change threatens to exacerbate today’s health
problems – deaths from extreme weather events, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,
infectious diseases, and malnutrition – whilst undermining water and food supplies,
infrastructure, and social protection systems.

Climate change can also lead to different types of pollution, like air or water pollution that
contribute to more health risks. Specific cooperation projects driven by the Ministry of Health
are being implemented in parallel to strengthen adaptive and preventative measures to cope
with environmental health and climate change-related hazards. These include strengthening
of the efforts to raise awareness and capacity building to deal with the impacts of climate
change on health and the strengthening of multilevel governance on the issue of climate
change and health, with the aim to ensure coherence between national, regional and local
planning. The Italian government has also worked out different strategies to help prevent
further pollution like the Department of Civil Protection and the Ministry of Health
implementing a national program for the prevention of heat health effects focused on the
elderly and including all regional capitals and cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. The
international community is also working on other programs to alleviate climate change, such
as projects that promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution is one of the
great modern threats to health, where minute pollution particles such as black carbon and
methane penetrate our lungs and bloodstream causing heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, or
other pulmonary diseases, ultimately resulting in 1 in 8 deaths worldwide.
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The Local. (2015, December 01). How climate change will devastate Italy. Retrieved from
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