Climate Change and Health

The InterAcademy Partnership and Save the Children are collaborating to develop a book of case studies that present science-based policy solutions for climate change and health challenges.

Climate change has the potential to disrupt the progress of humanity because it affects the provision of food, safe water and clean air on which we all depend, and magnifies already existing socially-mediated risks, such as displacement and access to essential health services. Thus climate change is expected to exacerbate risks to health.

When considering climate adaptation and mitigation actions, therefore, countries must also consider the health impacts of such actions. Not doing so could result in trade-offs and unintended consequences which could ultimately undermine health, while well-designed climate adaptation and mitigation actions can provide opportunities to reduce and prevent risks to health.

To build governments’ awareness of multi-sectoral, systems-based studies and policies, IAP and Save the Children called for examples of case studies of approaches to problem-solving and policies, which have been used to address the interlinked challenges of climate and health. Selected case studies will be edited into a volume to be made freely available that we hope will provide practical examples to decision makers that can be replicated in other situations.

The project builds on the IAP ‘Climate Change and Health’ project, as well as the Save the Children’s new strategic initiative ‘Climate and Health: Accelerating action on climate with health benefits’.