The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) continually monitors the scientific literature, publications of research organizations, governmental entities and academia, and other information sources to support the preparation of a periodic report presenting indicators of climate change in California.
Climate Change
Indicators of Climate Change in California
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment researches and presents indicators in periodic reports describing how California’s climate is changing and how these changes are affecting the state. Indicators are scientifically-based measurements that track trends in various aspects of climate change.
Indicators of Climate Change: Impacts on California Tribes
OEHHA recognizes the value of Tribal knowledge in reporting on, and raising awareness of, climate impacts.
Human Health Impacts of Climate Change
OEHHA focuses on human health studies relating increased temperatures to adverse health outcomes such as death and illness including hospital visits, emergency room visits, and birth defects. OEHHA has contributed to the growing body of literature linking deleterious health effects to increasing temperatures and heat waves. These studies have helped identify groups who are vulnerable to heat-related mortality and illness.
Recent Research on Climate Change in California: A bibliography
OEHHA has compiled information relevant to climate change and its impacts in an annotated bibliography with an emphasis on California. This annotated bibliography is intended as a source of current and emerging scientific information on climate change for environmental and public health agencies, the research community, non-government organizations, and the public.
2018 Report: Indicators of Climate Change in California
The third edition of the report, published in 2018, presented 36 indicators grouped into four categories: human-influenced drivers of climate change, such as greenhouse gas emissions; changes in the state’s climate; impacts of climate change on physical systems, such as oceans and snowpack; and impacts of climate change on biological systems – humans, vegetation and wildlife.
Reports, Notices, Documents
A new Fact sheet on pregnancy and heat is now available.
This 2022 report presents indicators of climate change describing how California’s climate is changing and how these changes are affecting the state and Tribal Nations.
Press Release about CalEPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment today released the fourth edition of its Indicators of Climate Change in California Report, documenting the wide-ranging impacts that global fossil fuel reliance has had on the state’s weather, water supplies, plants and animals, and human health, including Tribes.
Summary of the May 2021 listening session held jointly with the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, and OEHHA