ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the link between climate change (CC) and human health and demonstrates that CC has a human rights impact, especially with regard to the rights to the protection of health and to equal treatment of persons in Europe. Differences across European Member States due to geography, demography and levels of sustainable development may exacerbate the uneven distribution of health impacts caused by CC among populations and regions. Consequently, differing premature death rates for identical risks related to CC, such as extreme temperatures or excess air pollution levels, are currently causing differences in treatment of EU citizens according to the place where they live and work. In the face of CC, a phenomenon that is universal and affects without exception the various geographic zones of the EU, the health expenses that it causes or contributes to be being covered according to national health insurance schemes.
