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Global Climate Change and Its Impacts

the elderly—as vulnerable groups—are more sensitive to malnutrition and bear the greatest
impacts. Childhood is a critical phase for physical development; malnutrition can impair
children’s growth, causing below-normal height and weight, delayed intellectual develop-
ment, weakened immunity, and heightened risks of infectious diseases. Malnutrition in preg-
nant women affects fetal development, increasing risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes such
as preterm birth, low birth weight infants, and congenital abnormalities. Elderly individuals,
with declining bodily functions and special nutritional requirements, may experience physi-
cal frailty, reduced disease resistance, susceptibility to chronic illnesses, prolonged recovery
periods, and more severe conditions due to malnutrition.
The public health system must not only address health issues caused by malnutrition but
also collaborate with agricultural and food sectors to ensure food security and reduce the neg-
ative health impacts of malnutrition. In addressing malnutrition, the public health sector needs
to implement nutrition monitoring to promptly assess the population’s nutritional status and
develop targeted nutritional intervention measures. For example, providing nutritional supple-
ments to malnourished children, pregnant women, and elderly individuals, as well as conduct-
ing nutrition education campaigns to enhance public awareness of nutrition and health. Mean-
while, the public health system should cooperate with agricultural departments to promote
climate-resilient agricultural production technologies and improve crop yields and quality. Col-
laboration with food authorities is also essential to strengthen grain reserves and distribution
systems, ensuring stable food supply. However, since food security involves multiple domains
and processes, coordinating cross-sectoral efforts remains challenging. Additionally, given the
inherent limitations in resources and capacity within public health systems, significant obsta-
cles persist in addressing the public health impacts of food security issues.

II. Building the Climate Change Adaptation Capacity of the Public
Health System

(1) Strengthening the Disease Surveillance System
Accurate and comprehensive disease surveillance serves as the cornerstone for public
health systems to address climate change challenges. First, expanding surveillance scope is
crucial. Traditional disease surveillance primarily focuses on common infectious diseases,
while climate change drives shifts in disease patterns, introducing new categories such as
heat-related illnesses and emerging infectious diseases caused by altered vector organism
distribution. Public health authorities should incorporate these climate change-related dis-
eases into surveillance frameworks. For heat-related illnesses, during high-temperature sea-
sons, it is essential not only to monitor the number of heatstroke and heat exhaustion cases
in hospital emergency departments but also to collect reports of mild heat-related discomfort
symptoms in communities, thereby comprehensively understanding the incidence across
different regions and population groups. Regarding vector-borne diseases such as mosqui-
to-transmitted dengue fever and malaria, surveillance should track vector population sizes,

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