Increased climate instability has contributed to the emergence and spread of serious diseases carried by mosquitoes such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika. The incidence and severity of mosquito-borne diseases have increased significantly in Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean islands during the past 10 years, which calls for a better understanding of how climate change is shaping disease prevalence and transmission. Rising sea temperatures are thought to increase the frequency of disease outbreaks affecting reef buildings. Of the range of bacterial, fungal and protozoan diseases known to affect stony corals, many have explicit links to temperature. Global projections suggest that disease is as likely to cause coral mortality as bleaching in the coming decades at many localities, with effects occurring earlier at sites in the Caribbean compared to the Pacific and Indian oceans. Model hindcasts suggest that climate-driven changes in SST as well as extreme heatwave events have all played a significant role in the spread of white-band disease throughout the Caribbean. Global food security is threatened by climate-related increases in crop pests and diseases. Black Sigatoka disease of bananas has recently completed its invasion of Latin American and Caribbean banana-growing areas. Infection risk has increased by a median of 44.2% across the Caribbean since the 1960s, due to increasing canopy wetness and improving temperature conditions for the pathogen.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report