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Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is a major challenge facing public health. National governments play a key role in public health adaptation to climate change, but there are competing views on what responsibilities and obligations this will-or should-include in different nations. This study aims to: (1) examine how national-level public health adaptation is occurring in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries; (2) examine the roles national governments are taking in public health adaptation; and (3) critically appraise three key governance dimensions of national-level health adaptation-cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning-and identify practical examples suited to different contexts. We systematically reviewed publicly available public health adaptation to climate change documents and webpages by national governments in ten OECD countries using systematic web searches, assessment of self-reporting, and content analysis. Our findings suggest national governments are primarily addressing infectious disease and heat-related risks posed by climate change, typically emphasizing capacity building or information-based groundwork initiatives. We find national governments are taking a variety of approaches to public health adaptation to climate change that do not follow expected convergence and divergence by governance structure. We discuss practical options for incorporating cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning into a variety of contexts and identify leaders national governments can look to to inform their public health adaptation planning. Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement and subsequent increased momentum for adaptation, research tracking adaptation is needed to define what health adaptation looks like in practice, reveal insights that can be taken up across states and sectors, and ensure policy orientated learning.

SUBMITTER: Austin SE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5036722 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries.

Austin Stephanie E SE Biesbroek Robbert R Berrang-Ford Lea L Ford James D JD Parker Stephen S Fleury Manon D MD

International journal of environmental research and public health 20160907 9

Climate change is a major challenge facing public health. National governments play a key role in public health adaptation to climate change, but there are competing views on what responsibilities and obligations this will-or should-include in different nations. This study aims to: (1) examine how national-level public health adaptation is occurring in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries; (2) examine the roles national governments are taking in public health ad ...[more]

PMID: 27618074

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Project description:BackgroundClimate change is among the major challenges for health this century, and adaptation to manage adverse health outcomes will be unavoidable. The risks in Ontario - Canada's most populous province - include increasing temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and alterations to precipitation regimes. Socio-economic-demographic patterns could magnify the implications climate change has for Ontario, including the presence of rapidly growing vulnerable populations, exacerbation of warming trends by heat-islands in large urban areas, and connectedness to global transportation networks. This study examines climate change adaptation in the public health sector in Ontario using information from interviews with government officials.MethodsFifty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted, four with provincial and federal health officials and 49 with actors in public health and health relevant sectors at the municipal level. We identify adaptation efforts, barriers and opportunities for current and future intervention.ResultsResults indicate recognition that climate change will affect the health of Ontarians. Health officials are concerned about how a changing climate could exacerbate existing health issues or create new health burdens, specifically extreme heat (71%), severe weather (68%) and poor air-quality (57%). Adaptation is currently taking the form of mainstreaming climate change into existing public health programs. While adaptive progress has relied on local leadership, federal support, political will, and inter-agency efforts, a lack of resources constrains the sustainability of long-term adaptation programs and the acquisition of data necessary to support effective policies.ConclusionsThis study provides a snapshot of climate change adaptation and needs in the public health sector in Ontario. Public health departments will need to capitalize on opportunities to integrate climate change into policies and programs, while higher levels of government must improve efforts to support local adaptation and provide the capacity through which local adaptation can succeed.

Project description:BackgroundThe scoping review was conducted as part of the project "Improving Health Monitoring in Old Age" (IMOA) which aims at developing a conceptual framework with key indicators for a public health monitoring of the population aged 65?years and older in Germany. We systematically identified indicator-based monitoring systems that focus on health and wellbeing of older populations in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and analysed them with regard to structure, development and content.MethodsA systematic search strategy included searching the websites of national public health institutes, an additional internet search and a MEDLINE search via PubMed. Indicator systems were included if they presented data on a national level, if they were published or updated after 01/01/2007, if they relied on more than one data source and if they were available in English or German. Data on the structure and development of the indicator sets were extracted using a standardized documentation form, and a content analysis of the indicators was conducted using a pre-defined conceptual framework with three health areas and 11 health domains that is based on the Worlds Health Organization's "World Report on Ageing and Health" and on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).ResultsTen indicator-based monitoring systems met our inclusion criteria. Of these, six systems focused exclusively on older populations, and four offer a specific subset of indicators for older age. The number of indicators varied between 22 and 53 (median 32.5). Four systems were directly related to national public health or healthy ageing strategies, and two systems had been developed in consensus processes involving multiple stakeholders. The highest numbers of indicators could be assigned to the domains "health care", "nursing and community care", "wealth and poverty" and "physical health". Overall, 47 different concepts could be identified in the monitoring systems.ConclusionAmong indicator-based monitoring systems of health in older age identified in member countries of the OECD, there is considerable variation with regard to structure, development and content. The results will inspire the development of a public health monitoring of the older population in Germany.

Project description:There is a clear need for a state-of-the-art review of how public participation in climate change adaptation is being considered in research across academic communities: The Rio Declaration developed in 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) included explicit goals of citizen participation and engagement in climate actions (Principle 10). Nation states were given special responsibility to facilitate these by ensuring access to information and opportunities to participate in decision-making processes. Since then the need for public participation has featured prominently in calls to climate action. Using text analysis to produce a corpus of abstracts drawn from Web of Science, a review of literature incorporating public participation and citizen engagement in climate change adaptation since 1992 reveals lexical, temporal, and spatial distribution dynamics of research on the topic. An exponential rise in research effort since the year 2000 is demonstrated, with the focus of research action on three substantial themes-risk, flood risk, and risk assessment, perception, and communication. These are critically reviewed and three substantive issues are considered: the paradox of participation, the challenge of governance transformation, and the need to incorporate psycho-social and behavioral adaptation to climate change in policy processes. Gaps in current research include a lack of common understanding of public participation for climate adaptation across disciplines; incomplete articulation of processes involving public participation and citizen engagement; and a paucity of empirical research examining how understanding and usage of influential concepts of risk, vulnerability and adaptive capacity varies among different disciplines and stakeholders. Finally, a provisional research agenda for attending to these gaps is described. This article is categorized under:Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for AdaptationPolicy and Governance > Governing Climate Change in Communities, Cities, and Regions.

Dataset Information

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries.

Publications

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries.

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