Climate change has serious and wide-reaching impacts on the mental health of Australians today. General practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, other mental health professionals and support workers, researchers and people with lived experience and their families in Australia are collaborating on responses to the impacts of climate change on mental health, as much more focus on this is needed now and into the future.

The latest IPCC report confirms unequivocally that human activities are causing climate change. Governments working with communities to drastically reduce emissions this decade still allows a chance of limiting global warming to less than 1.5˚C, with enormous benefits to mental health and wellbeing.

This report discusses climate change and mental health including mental illness and suicide. It summarises existing knowledge and theory about effective responses and highlights areas where further research is needed.