This report has been prepared in response to informal requests by SIDS Member States and territories for WHO assistance in confronting the stark and dire situation which climate change has created in their countries and the impact it is having on th
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eir peoples
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MEDBOX Issue Brief no.23.
The intent of this Issue Brief is to raise awareness about heat waves as a result of climate change and its impact on
health. More information on the topic of climate change
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and planetary health you can find in our PLANETARY
HEALTH TOOLBOX www.planetaryhealthbox.org
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new Framework for Environmental and Social Management (FESM) to ensure that both people and the environment are protected from any potential impacts of FAO programmes and p
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rojects.
“This Framework ensures that our projects do both “no harm” and support the transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems by upholding the highest international standards for risk management,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu explained during a virtual event.
The Framework, which includes key elements of a people-centered approach and establishes environmental and social performance requirements for FAO programming, is also intended to ensure that all stakeholders, including local and indigenous communities, have ample opportunities to actively participate in projects’ activities and to voice their concerns about them.
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Background: The impacts of air pollutants on health range from short-term health impairments to hospital admissions
and deaths. Climate change is leading to an increase in air pollution.
The present book deals not only with emergency response, but also with measures designed to reduce the impact of disasters on environmental health infrastructure, such as water supply and sanitation facilities. It also aims to strengthen the ability
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of people to withstand the disruption of their accustomed infrastructure and systems for environmental health (e.g. shelter, water supply, sanitation, vector control etc.) and to recover rapidly.
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Climate change is having the largest impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Within this group, 20% are people with disabilities, who are nearly always doubly disadvantaged.
Exposure to air pollution causes 7 million deaths worldwide every year and costs an estimated US$ 5.11 trillion in welfare losses globally. In the 15 countries that emit the most greenhouse gas emissions, the health impacts of air pollution are estimated to cost more than 4% of their GDP. Actions to
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meet the Paris goals would cost around 1% of global GDP. The report provides recommendations for governments on how to maximize the health benefits of tackling climate change and avoid the worst health impacts of this global challenge.
It describes how countries around the world are now taking action to protect lives from the impacts of climate change – but that the scale of support remains woefully inadequate, particularly for the small island developing states, and least developed countries. Only approximately 0.5% of multilateral climate funds dispersed for climate change adaptation have been allocated to health projects
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Lancet Planet Health 2020; 4: e271–79
This article provides an overview of the current and projected climate change risks and impacts to mental health and provides recommendations for priority actions to address the mental health consequences of climate
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change.
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Journal of Land Use Science, 16:3, 223-239, DOI: 10.1080/1747423X.2021.1933226
Health is routinely considered in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), following requirements of European Union directives and the Protocol
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on Strategic Environmental Assessment to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention). Policy-makers and other sources report that these assessments mostly adopt a biophysical perspective and that few cases consider or define health in a manner which is consistent with the WHO Constitution, by considering the wider social, economic, behavioural and institutional aspects of health. This systematically conducted review of over 333 SEA and EIA cases in the WHO European Region shows that while about 80% of assessments pursue a narrow, biophysical interpretation of health, around 10% consider wider determinants when defining health, and another 10% consider wider determinants of health in the actual assessment. Twelve case studies are presented, literature is reviewed and implications for practice are considered.
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The threat climate change poses to health, equity, and development has been rigorously documented. However, in an era marked by economic crisis, regional conflicts, natural disasters and growing disparities between rich and poor, the joint global ac
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tions required to address climate change have been vigorously debated – and critical decisions postponed.
This document, part of WHO’s Health in the Green Economy series, describes how many climate change measures can be “win-wins” for people and the planet.
These policies yield large, immediate public health benefits while reducing the upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these policies can improve the health and equity of people in poor countries and assist developing countries in adapting to climate change that is already occurring, as evidenced by more extreme storms, flooding, drought and heatwaves.
WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Health in the Green Economy initiative in 2010 to review potential health and equity “co-benefits” of proposed climate change measures – as well as relevant risks.
This review examines mitigation strategies discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which constitutes the most broad-based global review of mitigation options by scientific experts.
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Chagas disease is currently endemic and also predicted to be at increased transmission risk under future climate change scenarios. Similarly, an expansion of areas in the United States at increased risk for Chagas disease transmission is also expect
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ed over the next several decades under climate change scenarios. Of particular interest is the predicted northern shift of triatomine species to central regions of the United States with historically unsuitable climates for T. cruzi vectors. The weight of evidence regarding the influences climate change may pose on T. cruzi vector species distributions demonstrates the sensitivity of Chagas disease transmission to future climate variability. In order to advance forecasts for the impact climate change may have on Chagas disease transmission in the Americas, it is imperative to
further develop, utilize, and perhaps combine predictive species distribution modeling approaches that integrate accurate, long term data on climate variables, vector species distributions, Chagas disease incidence, as well as other socio-ecological variables.
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The WHO Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement identified the health of displaced and migrant populations in the context of climate change as one of the most pressing, yet under-researched, topics.
Natural disasters often increase morbidity and mortality rates. Taking appropriate measures to maintain environmental health helps to reduce or eliminate the risks of preventable disease and death. Such measures contribute not only to the health of
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individuals in and near disaster-stricken areas, but they also contribute to decreasing the high costs of providing emergency health services in the aftermath of disaster.
This document is divided into several parts. The first section primarily addresses the effects of natural disasters on environmental health conditions and services. In the second section, environmental health measures are described that should be undertaken in each of three time frames: the predisaster, disaster, and postdisaster periods.
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Addressing gaps and improving health system performance is simply not enough to prepare a health system to tackle the effects of the climate crisis. Climate change’s impact on the health and well-being of people globally is reaching catastrophic l
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evels. As the earth continues to warm, tens of millions of people are at increased risk from rapid and unpredictable spread of infectious diseases, heatwaves, water and food insecurity and scarcity, air pollution, poverty and homelessness. Health services are often regarded as a first line defense in preventing adverse health outcomes, especially from those caused by climate impacts
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WaterAid is an international NGO that provides assistance for safe water supply,
sanitation and hygiene practice in the poor communities in the world.