Climate change and how it is a health risk to the urban population

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), majority of the human population in the world live in urban areas. In 2014, the urban population accounted for 54% of the total global population which is equivalent to 3.96 Billion and it is expected to grow by an average of 1.63% per year between now and 2030.

Climate change poses new multiple challenges to the urban setting and the greatest major concern to humanity being the health risks from the impacts of climate change. And these include flooding, scarcity of water, heat stress and lack of food among others. Majority of these adverse climate change effects are being experienced by the poor and the low income communities who have poor disaster preparedness capability and response. Developing countries are the most vulnerable because of low capacity to handle the disaster risk issues and poor disaster preparedness capabilities.