Public Health & Health Science Division, ULAB

Climate change poses a significant challenge to global human health, particularly impacting vulnerable populations such as infants, children, and youths. Despite growing awareness of its environmental effects, the relationship between climate change and human health remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by conducting an observational analysis of the association between climate change, characterized by the total greenhouse gas emissions from the Worldbank database, and stillbirths, neonatal, under-5 and child and youth (ages 5 – 24) mortality rates from the UNICEF database. By stratifying the analysis based on UNICEF regions, this study seeks to explore the spatial and temporal patterns to provide insights for policymakers, non- governmental organization, and the public to target interventions effectively. The results reveal complex relationships with varying mortality rates across UNICEF regions despite the differing levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Across the four UNICEF mortality measures, East Asia and Pacific was found to have the highest total greenhouse emissions and West and Central Africa was found to have the highest fetal, infant, child and youth mortality rates. Despite limitations inherent in this observational study design, this study underscores the urgent need for proactive measures to combat climate change and to mitigate its health effects on vulnerable populations such as infants, children, and youths.