Climate Change Mitigation: Protecting the Health of Current and Future Generations

Robert Dubrow, MD, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology (Department of Environmental Health Sciences) at Yale School of Public Health, serves as the founding director of the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, which utilizes research, education, and public health practice to help safeguard the health of human populations from adverse impacts of climate change and human activities that cause climate change. To protect health, the center works with academic, government, and civil society partners to utilize science to contribute toward sharply reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to the climate change impacts that continue to occur. The center aims to make local, national, and international impact and to integrate social justice into all of its work. Among its activities are an online certificate program on climate change and health; the first detailed report on climate change and health in Connecticut; an experiential clinic for Yale students focused on climate justice, climate policy, law, and public health; a new program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste in hospitals and healthcare systems; and membership in the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change – an international collaboration that tracks global progress on climate change and health through an annual report published in the medical journal The Lancet.