Mankind is exerting unprecedented pressures on the planet by way of depleting resources and harmful waste products. Manmade carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases have been increasing almost exponentially since the start of the industrial revolution. World average temperature has risen relatively fast over the past 30 years and sea-level rise is gradually accelerating—and the increases are forecast to continue for more than a century, even if we gradually curtail greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades (IPCC,2007). Annual temperatures will continue to fluctuate up and down due to natural variability but an upward trend has been superimposed by anthropogenic global warming.

A rise of a few degrees Celsius within the coming century, as forecast by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007), would affect the earth’s ecosystems and life, which have evolved within a narrow band of climatic-environmental conditions. The main categories of adverse health impacts of climate change have been widely discussed elsewhere (McMichael et al., 2003) and more recently by Confalonieri et al., (2007). They include the direct effects of climatic extremes, viz., thermal stress and weather disasters, and the various direct and indirect effects mediated by climatic influences on local crop yields and fisheries and on respiratory diseases and infectious disease transmission, such as those related to vector-borne infectious diseases. Extra-ordinary efforts are being planned by some Governments, including those of the United Kingdom and France, to limit temperature increases by less than 2ºC by drastic mitigation of greenhouse gases, as recommended by UNDP (2007) and others. In spite of this World energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions will grow by about 50 percent over the next two decades in the eyes of the United States Energy Information Administration (reported by Caribbean 360.com, June 2008). It is therefore imperative that the full impact of climate change on human health be assesses and necessary adaptation option be recommended. This assessment forms part of the activities for the preparation of Jamaica’s second national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To put the report in context, the preset structure of the Health Sector and direction of Health Policies are outlined briefly below.