Call to Action on Climate Change and Health

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment calls for urgent federal action to treat climate change as a public health emergency, advocating for a target-based plan to limit warming to 1.5°C to protect Canadian health and reduce healthcare costs.

• Climate change is currently negatively impacting the physical and mental health of Canadians through cardiorespiratory issues from wildfire smoke, trauma and PTSD from evacuations, and food insecurity in the Canadian Arctic where temperatures have risen by up to 3°C since the 1950s.
• Extreme weather events in Canada have led to significant economic costs, with insurance claims for floods and wildfires increasing from $400 million per year in previous decades to approximately $1 billion per year, and government disaster funding rising from $100 million per year two decades ago to $2 billion in 2013-14.
• The document highlights severe weather impacts in 2018, including Toronto experiencing 21 days over 30°C, more than 90 heat-related deaths in Quebec, a provincial state of emergency in British Columbia due to nearly 600 wildfires, and Ontario's wildfire count doubling to 1,312.
• Global health risks are escalating, with the 2018 Lancet Countdown reporting 712 extreme weather events in 2017 causing $326 billion in economic losses and 3.4 billion lost work weeks due to extreme heat.
• Canada is projected to miss its 2020 emissions target of 620 MT by 111 MT, and the document argues that limiting warming to 1.5°C instead of 2°C would protect several hundred million more people from climate-related poverty by 2050.
• Climate solutions could provide immediate health and financial benefits in Canada, such as reducing the 7,100 premature deaths and $53.5 billion in annual health costs caused by fine particulate air pollution from fossil fuels.
• The authors call for specific federal actions, including phasing out coal-fired power plants by 2030, regulating methane, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, and implementing a just transition for workers and farmers.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (2019). Call to Action on Climate Change and Health. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Call-to-Action-ENGLISH-Dec-2019.pdf

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Call to Action on Climate Change and Health. 2019. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Call-to-Action-ENGLISH-Dec-2019.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Call to Action on Climate Change and Health |date=December 2019 |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Call-to-Action-ENGLISH-Dec-2019.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironment2019call, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Call to Action on Climate Change and Health}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2019}, month = dec, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Call-to-Action-ENGLISH-Dec-2019.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }