Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Climate change is established to be unequivocal and has been unanimously identified as one of biggest threats to health worldwide. Greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of these global rising temperatures, affecting health and mortality worldwide. Currently almost half of the global population lives in urban areas, usually characterized by their higher environmental hazard burden (e.g., elevated levels of heat and air pollution). With future projections of both population growth and climate change, exposure to environmental hazards and subsequent health risks are only expected to increase. Evidence for the Belgian context is still scarce regarding climate change-related health impacts. The main objective of this project is to evaluate for the first time in Belgium climate change-related (cause-specific) excess mortality attributed to temperature. The findings of the proposed project aim to offer new insights to minimize the public health burden attributable to climate change by shaping policies or raising public awareness on the topics of public health and climate change