Animal Welfare and Climate Change: Interconnected Crises

Climate change is emerging as one of the most significant drivers of animal welfare harm globally. Understanding the connections helps integrate welfare into climate advocacy.

Key Facts

Rising temperatures increase heat stress in both farm and wild animals, with chronic and acute welfare consequences.
Extreme weather events including droughts, floods, and wildfires cause acute welfare crises for wildlife and livestock.
Ocean warming and acidification affect marine species from polar bears to coral reef fish through habitat loss and food chain disruption.
Phenological mismatches — shifts in breeding timing that no longer align with peak food availability — are documented across many species.
Climate-driven range shifts force species into novel habitats where they face new competitors, predators, and pathogens.
Drought reduces water availability for wildlife, causing physiological stress and forcing increased conflict over resources.
Livestock heat stress costs the US dairy industry an estimated $897 million annually in reduced production.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report identified animal welfare as a significant co-benefit of climate change mitigation.

Welfare Considerations

Climate change is a welfare issue as much as an environmental and human health issue. The welfare consequences of warming fall most heavily on animals: wild species face habitat disruption, food chain changes, and extreme weather events that individually and cumulatively cause significant suffering; farm animals experience more frequent heat stress events as temperature records are broken; and marine animals face ocean warming and acidification that affect physiology, behaviour, and food availability. Framing climate action as an animal welfare imperative — not merely an environmental and human health issue — broadens the coalition for climate advocacy and highlights moral stakes that are often underemphasised in climate communication. Climate mitigation is simultaneously one of the most important animal welfare interventions available.

What You Can Do

Reduce your carbon footprint as a direct animal welfare contribution alongside an environmental one.
Integrate animal welfare framing into climate advocacy to broaden the moral case for action.
Support climate adaptation measures for wildlife including assisted migration and habitat connectivity.
Advocate for livestock welfare provisions in climate adaptation plans for agricultural systems.
Reduce livestock product consumption, which simultaneously reduces GHG emissions and animal welfare burden.
Support research into climate change impacts on animal welfare across different species and systems.