Climate change causes direct and indirect harm to wild animals through habitat loss, disrupted food availability, extreme weather events, and disease spread.
Climate change is emerging as one of the most significant threats to wild animal welfare at scale. Beyond population-level impacts, climate change causes extensive individual suffering - animals dying of heat stress, starvation when food sources disappear, drowning in floods, or burning in wildfires. Marine heatwaves cause mass die-offs of sentient animals like seabirds and sea lions. Addressing climate change is therefore a major animal welfare priority alongside its human and ecological implications.