HUMAN CAPITAL PROJECT Climate Change climate The Human Capital Project & CLIMATE #INVESTinPeople Why CLIMATE? Increasing and more Human capital can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas intense heatwaves, (GHG) emissions, generating long-term human development gains. floods, and other extreme Reducing the carbon footprint can also have immediate benefits. For example, actions to cut GHG emissions can lower air pollution, weather events pose the fourth-leading risk factor for death worldwide largely affecting a serious threat to the children. human capital of billions The benefits of climate action are greater than ever before, while the of people. costs of inaction continue to mount. Low-carbon and resilient growth could deliver economic benefits of US$26 trillion by 2030.1 The Human Capital Project can support this shift to a new climate economy. CLIMATE CHANGE IS A THREAT to human capital Human capital can play a critical role IN REDUCING GHG …severe stunting could increase by 31-55% in regions ofsub-Saharan Africa and WITHOUT 62% in South Asia.2 ACTION… …the health of millions of people could be adversely affected through increases in vector-borne and waterborne diseases, heat stress, malnutrition, air pollution, and severe weather events. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change could cause an additional 250,000 deaths a year due to malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria and heat stress. In 2017 alone, some 157 million vulnerable people were exposed to heatwaves, with 153 billion hours of labor were lost last year due to heat exposure.3 BUT IF …learning and educational attainment can be adversely impacted by extreme heat and poverty. For example, research shows that extreme heat can WE ACT reduce learning by up to 15%.4 …more than 100 million people could return to extreme poverty. NOW… we could reduce the 5 expected negative Higher temperatures and lack of access to cooling impacts of climate will impact laborproductivity and the well- being of populations: by 2050, work hours lost due change on human to heat may be as high as 12% in the worst affected regions of South Asia and West Africa, or 6% of capital and reduce annual GDP. The lack of adequate cold storage and refrigerated transport contributes to over 1.5 million the carbon footprint. vaccine preventable deaths each year.6 How climate affects HUMAN CAPITAL EXTREME HEAT Learning HOW CLIMATE Productivity Illness and death VECTOR ECOLOGY affects Human Capital Conflict EXTREME HEAT Learning CHANGES Vector-borne Productivity VECTOR Illness and death diseases (e.g. ECOLOGY Conflict S MORE malaria, dengue) CHANGES RE EX ATU TR Vector-borne R E diseases (e.g. PE RES MORE EX malaria, dengue) M TU EM TR RA E E The impacts on human PE W GT EA M M E capital— which depend RISIN TE THE W EA ENVIRONMENTAL G on physical exposure and RISIN THE DEGRADATION R ENVIRONMENTAL adaptative capacity—are Forced migration DEGRADATION R location specific, and Cilvil conflict Forced migration Cilvil conflict Mental health INC disproportionately affect Access to Mental health services INC Access to services LS LE S the poor. Research suggests & FOOD & FOOD WATER WATER RE E A EV EL RE VE IMPACTS IMPACTS SUPPLYSUPPLY AS AS that investments in human Waterborne disease disease Waterborne L IN IN EA Food production capital enhance adaptive COCO S Food production G S G NG and livelihoods 2 L E RIS I G and livelihoods 2 L EVVELS N Malnutrition capacity, thereby reducing ELS R I SI Malnutrition vulnerability.7 AIR POLLUTION Pollution-related AIR POLLUTION diseases (e.g. SEVERE WEATHER Pollution-related Injuries and death cardiovascular, health WEATHER SEVERE Mental diseases (e.g. asthma) Injuries and Infrastructure death damage cardiovascular, Supply of services Mental health asthma) Livelihoods Infrastructure damage Supply of services Livelihoods ACTING NOW: Supporting Adaptation Climate-smart policies and interventions can significantly reduce the expected negative impacts of climate change on REGIONAL DISEASE BANGLADESH CHAD SOCIAL human capital. SURVEILLANCE TRANSFORMING SAFETY NETS SYSTEMS SECONDARY Builds the resilience For instance, building schools REDISSE strengthens EDUCATION of the poorest through integrated vector Incorporates cash transfers, the and hospitals that are resilient management adaptation measures creation of a social in the face of mounting approaches and in the construction registry responsive climate impacts, investing in aligns timing and and retrofitting of to shocks, and adaptative social protection so location of activities education facilities program scale-up in that communities can bounce with potential such as schools, labs, response to weather back more quickly from climate-induced shifts and training centers. shocks, among other natural disasters. in disease burden. measures. EXTREME HEAT VECTOR ECOLOGY Occupational safety and CHANGES health regulations Laboratory capacity Public cooling centers Georgraphic risk maps Passive cooling through Emergency response design and retrofit Prevention Minimum energy Surveillance and information performance standards systems Health services ES MORE UR EX RAT TR E PE M EM E W GT EA WATER & FOOD RISIN THE SUPPLY IMPACTS ENVIRONMENTAL Surveillance for Different ways R DEGRADATION Migrant inclusive waterborne-disease outbreaks TO PROTECT HUMAN CAPITAL services Monitoring of food INC Cash-for-work Agriculture production, quality, LS RE practices and safety VE Water and sanitation AS LE IN EA CO S G LE G 2 VEL IN S RIS SEVERE WEATHER AIR POLLUTION Adaptive social Health services protection Air pollution Design and retrofit monitoring and of facilitites index alerts Occupational safety Disaster preparedness and health and response systems regulations Early warning systems ACTING NOW: Reducing the carbon footprint BANGLADESH QUALITY Behavior Change LEARNING FOR ALL PROGRAM A New Climate Carbon emissions are the result of billions Content on climate change Economy of decisions made by individuals. Human mitigation in school curricula. capital has a critical role to play in shaping Human capital can important decisions on home energy, support a shift to a food choices and waste, transport, among new climate economy others. Women’s empowerment, for through investments instance, through universal education and in research, retraining family planning, can contribute to mitigation and developing the and adaptation to address climate change.8 skills for the jobs of Low Carbon Services Designing, building, operating, and Considering the large carbon footprint investing in delivery systems and of procurement for the healthcare facilities in smart ways can generate sector in many countries, sustainable substantial reductions of greenhouse procurement policies, strategies, and gases. Low carbon services consider practices (particularly when carried out a range of aspects, including building on a large scale), can be an important design and construction, use of energy, route for de-carbonizing the supply waste minimization and management, chain and achieving climate-smart TANZANIA EDUCATION transport and water consumption healthcare. PROGRAM FOR RESULTS policies, and procurement policies. Construct or retrofit facilities to be more energy efficient. tomorrow. Research employment gain of 37 communities and workers, from the New Climate million jobs.1 exacerbating social Economy shows that exclusion of the poorest bold climate action could Unless this economic and most vulnerable. EGYPT HEALTHCARE generate 65 million new transition is carefully and Such a transition also REFORM PROJECT low-carbon jobs globally responsibly managed— needs to be designed Establish a climate and health by 2030, more than with an important role to ensure more female research program that is ac- offsetting employment for social protection labor force participation, companied by higher education reductions in declining systems—there is a ensuring a more inclusive and a specialized skills program sectors, leading to a net real risk of stranded employment landscape. to reduce energy consumption in healthcare systems. Investing in human capital: New Climate Economy, 2018: Unlocking the Inclusive Growth Story of the 21st 1 Century: Accelerating Climate Action in Urgent Times, Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. a critical element in the response Lloyd, S.J., R.S. Kovats, and Z. Chalabi, 2011: Climate change, crop yields, and 2 malnutrition: development of a model to quantify the impact of climate scenarios on child malnutrition. Environmental Health Perspectives, 119(12), 1817-1823. to climate change. World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/ 3 news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health Goodman, J., Hurwitz, M., Park, J. and Smith, J., 2018. Heat and learning. 4 NBER Working Paper No. w24639. Hallegatte, S., Bangalore, M., Bonzanigo, L., Fay, M., Kane, T., Narloch, U., 5 Rozenberg, J., Treguer, D. and Vogt-Schilb, A., 2015. Shock waves: managing the impacts of climate change on poverty. The World Bank. Sustainable Energy for All, March 2018, Cooling for All, Current and Projected 6 Cooling Demand, Background Documents. https://www.seforall.org/sites/ default/files/2019-05/CurrentandProjectedCoolingDemand.pdf Lutz, W. and Muttarak, R., 2017. Forecasting societies’ adaptive capacities 7 through a demographic metabolism model. Nature Climate Change, 7(3), p.177.; Lutz, W., Muttarak, R. and Striessnig, E., 2014. Universal education is key to enhanced climate adaptation. Science, 346(6213), pp.1061-1062. Drawdown, 2017. Health and Education. Available at: https://drawdown.org/ 8 solutions/health-and-education ADDITIONAL REFERENCES Béné, C., et al. (2014), “Social Protection and Climate Change”, OECD Development Co-operation Working Papers, No. 16, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5jz2qc8wc1s5-en. Bouley, Timothy; Roschnik, Sonia; Karliner, Josh; Wilburn, Susan; Slotterback, Scott; Guenther, Robin; Orris, Peter; Kasper, Toby; Platzer, Barbara Louise; Torgeson, Kris. 2017. Climate-smart healthcare: low-carbon and resilience strategies for the health sector. Investing in climate change and health series. Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. www.worldbank.org/humancapital International Labour Organization. 2018. World Employment and Social Outlook 2018: Greening with jobs. International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO, 2018. Watts, N., Amman, M., Arnell, N., Aveb-Karlsson, S., Belesova, K., Boykoff, HUMAN M., et al. 2019. The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing CAPITAL climate. Lancet 2019; 394: 1836–78, Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/ action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2819%2932596-6 PROJECT Climate Change climate #INVESTinPeople