Health Data Science · Published 2026-01-01 · DOI 10.34133/hds.0417
Background: Climate change amplifies the frequency and severity of landscape fire and floods, creating disproportionate health risks across countries. Yet, global disparities and injustices in mortality attributable to these climate-related risks remain poorly quantified. Methods: We constructed a country-level panel dataset (2000 to 2019) integrating mortality attributable to landscape fire-sourced (LFS) air pollution and floods, national Human Development Index (HDI), and per-capita CO2 emissions. Relative inequality was assessed using the Gini and concentration indices, absolute inequality using HDI-based slope estimates, and climate injustice using the slope of attributable mortality rates against per-capita CO2 emissions. Results: Mortality burdens from both risks were highly unequal across countries. LFS air pollution showed lower relative inequality (Gini = 0.59 for LFS air pollution and 0.82 for floods) but a steeper socioeconomic gradient (concentration index = −0.41 vs −0.28) and a larger absolute slope with HDI. Inequality from LFS air pollution declined modestly over time, whereas flood-related disparities remained less pronounced. Mortality was inversely associated with per-capita CO2 emissions, indicating stronger and more persistent climate injustice for LFS air pollution than for floods. Conclusion: This study bridges data-driven analysis and policy perspectives to quantify global inequality and injustice in climate-related mortality burdens due to LFS air pollution and floods. This provides essential data to align emission mitigation and adaptive health policies toward greater environmental equity and justice under climate change.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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