Climate Change Pathways and Potential Future Risks to Nutrition and Infection

Climate change is a recognized theme of the twenty-first century, affecting both nutrition and infection by multiple pathways and mechanisms. This chapter outlines the linkages between climate change, nutrition, and infection from a systems perspective, incorporating the past associations between global health and climate as well as the projected trajectory of change over the twenty-first century. Both observed mechanisms and associations and frameworks for scenario-based assessment and model results are presented and explained. While the synthesis emphasizes the importance of taking action on all three challenges at the same time, it also identifies the need for more knowledge on the combined impacts of climate change on nutrition and infections and of nutrition and food systems on climate change. The chapter starts by describing the climate situation and scenarios of change and assessment frameworks and then presents an overview of ways in which climate is linked to nutrition and infections. Thereafter, climate change, undernutrition, and infections are each discussed in more depth. The chapter concludes by highlighting how climate change, nutrition, and infection are all intertwined in the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.