African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development

 

EMERGENCY VEHICLE CALL OUT

 

The AFRIVERSE Emergency Vehicle Call Out team examines how climate change may be increasing demand for emergency vehicle responses. Rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events can worsen underlying health conditions, particularly cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, leading to greater pressure on emergency medical services. Previous studies have shown clear associations between extreme heat, air pollution, and other climate-related hazards and higher rates of emergency vehicle call outs. However, most research has focused on identifying correlations rather than assessing the extent to which these changes are driven by human influence on the climate system. This project therefore investigates whether climate change has intensified the burden on emergency response services and to what extent this increase can be attributed to human-driven climate change.

This work is part of the AFRIVERSE initiative, funded by Wellcome [309305/Z/24/Z].

AFRIVERSE aims to address the under-representation of Africa in climate-health impact attribution through new data, digital tools, capacity building and synthesis research led by African scientists.