Global Environmental Change and Human Health (GECHH) is the fourth joint project within the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). It is being developed as a logical complement to the three ongoing ESSP projects. Those three projects address the global carbon cycle (Global Carbon Project, GCP), the global water system (Global Water System Project, GWSP), and food systems (Global Environmental Change and Food Systems, GECAFS). Changes in each of those three systems influence, via diverse pathways, human wellbeing and health. The GECHH Project has identified a set of key types of global environmental changes that are known or suspected to have significant consequences for human health. The evolving Science Plan explores priorities and settings for the future coordinated international study of these relationships, taking into account the complexities of concurrently acting environmental changes and the importance of socioeconomic and cultural contexts as modifiers of human vulnerability.

Image: Copyright UN Photo/Martine Perret