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.

Measuring Progress on Climate Change Adaptation Policy by Dutch Water Boards

“…The results of this study demonstrate an increasing attention to climate change adaptation across the water management plans of Dutch water boards over time. This finding is similar to other adaptation tracking studies in different fields such as public health (Austin et al 2016) or adaptation more generally (Lesnikowski et al 2016), which also found an increase in adaptation initiatives. However, by adopting this systematic tracking approach we find more critically that adaptation is currently still at the recognition or groundwork level and progress is being made mostly when it comes to groundwork initiatives for adaptation.…”

Social connection as a public health adaptation to extreme heat events

“…across the globe. Over the next several decades, Canada is predicted to increasingly experience days with temperatures over 30°C, which are strongly associated with heat-related population mortality (Austin et al 2016). In 2009, an extreme heat event in greater Vancouver caused an estimated 110 deaths (Kosatsky et al 2012); in 2010, another event in Montreal caused an estimated 106 deaths (Price et al 2013).…”

Do Administrative Traditions Matter for Climate Change Adaptation Policy? A Comparative Analysis of 32 High‐Income Countries

“…Here we follow Dupuis and Biesbroek () and define adaptation policy as “... the production of outputs in forms of activities and decisions taken by purposeful public and private actors at different administrative levels and in different sectors, which deals intentionally with climate change impacts, and whose outcomes attempt to substantially impact actor groups, sectors, or geographical areas that are vulnerable to climate change” (p. 1480). In other words, we conceptualize something as adaptation policy when it is explicitly framed as such by policy makers, an approach that is consistent with most other comparative adaptation policy studies (Araos et al, ); (Austin et al, ). Given the multifaceted nature of adaptation, we unpack adaptation policy into three interrelated questions: 1) when is adaptation policy taking place (timing), 2) what kind of adaptation policy exists (action), and 3) how is this policy organized (structure).…”