A/HRC/32/23 diseases. Cholera, for example, thrives in a warming climate and insects and other carriers of disease are very sensitive to heat, humidity and rainfall. Climate change has greatly expanded the range of dengue fever and could do the same for malaria. More than half of the world’s population currently lives in an area where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the principal vector for zika, dengue and chikungunya, are present. Warming temperatures threaten to expand this geographical range even further. In addition to the aforementioned diseases, panellists and survey respondents linked climate change to outbreaks of leptospirosis, diarrhoea, viral infections, meningitis, varicella, viral hepatitis, leishmaniasis and pertussis.24 19. Changes in the climate have multiple impacts on transmission of diseases, including lengthening their transmission season and expanding their geographic range. WHO has projected that these impacts will result in 48,000 additional deaths from diarrhoeal disease for children aged under 15 years and 60,000 additional deaths from malaria by the year 2030. These increases in mortality would have a disproportionate impact on persons living in Africa and South-East Asia.25 5. Nutrition 20. Climate change affects nutrition through changes in crop yields, loss of livelihood, increases in poverty, and reduced access to food, water and sanitation, among others. Elevated carbon dioxide levels cause climate change and directly decrease the protein, mineral and vitamin content of many staple food crops.26 The World Bank recently estimated that a 2°C increase in average global temperature would put between 100 million and 400 million more people at risk of hunger and could result in over 3 million additional deaths from malnutrition each year. 27 By 2050, climate change is expected to result in an additional 24 million undernourished children. 28 WHO estimates that climate change will lead to nearly 95,000 additional deaths per year due to undernutrition in children aged 5 years or less by 2030.29 Beyond starvation, undernutrition contributes to higher incidences of morbidity and mortality from diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. These impacts will be felt disproportionately in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change is projected to increase severe child stunting by 23 per cent in central sub-Saharan Africa and by 62 per cent in South Asia by 2050. 30 6. Impacts on mental health 21. The consequences of climate change can have a profound impact on mental health through both its direct impact and its impact on social support systems and cultural traditions. People who experience the loss of homes or loved ones, or are exposed to lifethreatening situations, face higher risks of developing stress and anxiety-related conditions, 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Various inputs, including WHO; and G. Mercer, “The link between Zika and climate change”, The Atlantic (24 February 2016). WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment. L. Ziska and others, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (Washington, D.C., 2016), pp. 189-216. World Bank, World Development Report 2010, pp. 4-5. See G.C. Nelson and others, Climate change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation, International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, D.C., 2009). WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment. S.J. Lloyd, R. Sari Kovats and Zaid Chalabi, “Climate change, crop yields, and undernutrition: development of a model to quantify the impact of climate scenarios on child undernutrition”, Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 119, pp. 1817-1823 (2011). 7