The Health Effects of Climate Change

The Health Effects of Climate Change, offered by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health through edX, is an introductory online course examining how climate change affects human health and what can be done to reduce those impacts. Created with support from the Harvard Global Health Institute, the course connects rising greenhouse gas concentrations with health outcomes across areas such as air quality, nutrition, infectious disease, and migration. It also introduces practical approaches to mitigation and adaptation, helping learners understand climate change as both a global health challenge and a solvable problem.

Core Content

The curriculum explores the pathways through which climate change affects human health, beginning with an overview of climate science and the links between environmental change and health outcomes. It covers heat-related illness and air quality, water-borne and vector-borne diseases, nutrition, migration, and other public health consequences of a warming climate. Learners are also introduced to research methods used to measure these impacts and to strategies for reducing health risks through mitigation and adaptation.

Key Skills

Participants will develop the ability to explain how changes in Earth’s atmosphere affect health, assess the links between climate change and nutrition, migration, infectious disease, and air quality, and evaluate different approaches to reducing climate-related health risks. The course also helps learners understand the research methods used in climate and health studies and strengthens their ability to interpret evidence and compare mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Target Learners

This course is designed for students, health professionals, sustainability practitioners, policymakers, and general learners interested in the relationship between climate change and public health. It is particularly relevant for those seeking a foundational understanding of how environmental change translates into human health outcomes. Harvard classifies the course as introductory, making it accessible to learners without specialist prior knowledge.

Learning Format

Hosted on edX, the course is delivered in a flexible self-paced online format over seven weeks, with an expected study commitment of three to five hours per week. The learning experience combines expert instruction, climate and health case material, research-based content, and assessments, allowing learners to progress at their own pace. The course can be audited for free, while the verified track provides full access to course materials, activities, tests, and forums and currently offers a certificate for $229 upon successful completion.

Additional Benefits

The course offers practical value for learners who want to connect climate science with direct human consequences rather than treating climate change only as an environmental issue. Its emphasis on health impacts, research evidence, and actionable responses makes it useful for professionals working across public health, climate policy, sustainability, and related fields. Instruction from Harvard faculty and experts also provides a strong evidence-based foundation for understanding and responding to climate-related health risks.

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