Climate & Health: Opportunities and Challenges for Politics & Society

26 November 2024

As part of the Research Results live event “Climate & Health: Opportunities and Challenges for Politics & Society” on 26 November 2024, Dr. Claudia Konnopka (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) and Prof. Dr. Moritz Drupp (University of Hamburg) presented their research results and discussed the topic with Dr. Andreas Philippi, Minister for Health of Lower Saxony, and Dr. Susanne Klein, Managing Director of Barmer Hamburg, who took part in the panel discussion at short notice for Martin Kaiser (Greenpeace Germany), who who was prevented from attending.

Against the backdrop of climate change, researchers of the HCHE have analyzed how extreme temperatures and other environmental factors affect health. Hot and cold days in particular have led to an increase in emergency hospital admissions in recent years, causing an annual increase in costs in Germany of around 174 million euros. On the other hand, the introduction of CO2 pricing has reduced the increase in climate and health damage. A significant reduction in emissions has directly and indirectly avoided more than 100 billion euros in potential costs.

For more information, read the press release (in German) on the topic.

Impressions of the event can be found here.