Climate change, health equity and a role for public health
Climate change, health equity and a role for public health
Ardene Robinson Vollman
Post date: January 22, 2021
Ardene Robinson Vollman
Post date: January 22, 2021
The very important matter of climate change and the role of public health has not yet been addressed in Canadian Community as Partner. We commit to adding a chapter on environmental health in the next edition, with a focus on climate change. In this blog post, we provide some resources for readers to consider.
What is climate change? According to Environment Canada (2015) it is a long-term shift in weather conditions that are identified by changes in temperature, precipitation, winds, and other indicators. It can involve both changes in average conditions and changes in variability, including extreme events. While climate change can occur naturally, human activity has had the single greatest influence through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, both of which result in the release of carbon dioxide into the environment causing a greenhouse effect that increases temperature.
The 2015 Annual Conference of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) was dedicated to the ecological determinants of health, predicated on a 350-page analysis that was reported in brief. This brief was framed as a discussion paper intended to begin thinking about and talking about the effects of climate change on our planet and on species. The first three chapters of the report discuss the changes happening in the global ecosystem. Chapter 4 presents the drivers of those changes, and in Chapter 5 the health implications of those changes are described. Alternative approaches to addressing those changes and recommendations for action are contained in the final three chapters. By understanding the issues, solutions and work required to mitigate the potential impacts of the ecological determinants of health we, as public health professionals and citizens of the world, can be advocates for healthy public policies and strategies for action on climate change.
In 2015, Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), described climate change as “the defining issue for the 21st century” for public health (UNFCCC, 2015).
In 2018, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reported that in 2017 with 1°C global warming:
157 million more people were exposed to heat waves than in 2000;
62 billion more hours of labour were lost due to extreme heat than were lost in 2000;
712 extreme weather events occurred, tripling the number in 2016;
the economic loss of extreme weather events in 2017 was $326 billion USD;
Africa reported an increasing rate of insect and animal borne diseases; and
30 countries experienced a downward trend in agricultural yield.
In 2019, the CPHA produced a policy statement on climate change and human health in the wake of a Government of Canada report that detailed the enormity of the challenge of climate change in Canada. CPHA views the response to climate change can be, as Watts et al. (2015) articulated, “the greatest health opportunity of this century” since many of the policies required to address global warming would also create considerable health and societal benefits. There is no question Canada is already feeling the effects of climate change: air pollution from forest fires; evacuations due to floods and fires; food insecurity, particularly in the North; and spread of infectious agents (e.g., Lyme disease, West Nile disease). It’s important to note, however, that the effects of climate change do not affect all people equally. Inequitably affected are those who are marginalized and disadvantaged in society. To examine these issues in greater depth, the National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health (NCCDH) has created several resources. I recommend that you read them and consider how we, as members of the public health community, can address the issue of health inequity in the face of climate change.
In a recent editorial in the Canadian Journal of Public Health (CJPH, 2020) that contained a special section on climate change, Louise Potvin and Jeff Masuda declare “climate change: a top priority for public health” and commit the journal to making “Moving on IPCC 1.5°C” a permanent call for submissions a priority. This special section contained reports of bold research and action to advance mitigation and adaptation to climate change. They note these reports indicate there are signs of increasing momentum by the public health community to confront the climate crisis. From this special section of CJPH, “[t]hree critical lessons emerged: the need for institutional change from the top of public health, the essential power of community in intersectoral action on climate change preparedness, and the importance of centring Indigenous wisdom to decolonize colonial legacy systems” (Masuda et al., 2020).
The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH.ca) has over 30 resources relating to climate; I recommend checking their website for more information. You can also refer to the Climate Change Toolkit for Health Professionals, available from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE.ca). These and other organizations offer insightful resources for interested people.
Hot off the press from the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP): Report – Tools and Methods for Integrating Health into Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Policies and Strategies. This document presents the results of a scoping review of the literature on existing tools and methods for integrating health concerns into climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and strategies.
References:
Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). (2019). Position Statement: Climate change and human health. https://www.cpha.ca/climate-change-and-human-health
Environment Canada. (2015). Causes of Climate Change. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/causes.html
Government of Canada. (2019). Canada’s Changing Climate Report: Advancing our knowledge for action. A collaborative report of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada and University experts. https://changingclimate.ca/CCCR2019/
Hancock T., Spady D.W., & Soskolne C.L. (Editors). (2015). Global Change and Public Health: Addressing the ecological determinants of health: The Report in Brief. https://www.cpha.ca/sites/default/files/assets/policy/edh-brief.pdf
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2015). Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
Masuda J., Lewis D., Poland B., & Sanchez-Pimienta C.E. (2020). Stop ringing the alarm; it is time to get out of the building! [Invited commentary]. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 111:831–835. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00437-9
National Collaborating Centre on the Determinants of Health. (n.d.). NCCDH Resources: Climate change and health equity. https://nccdh.ca/resources/entry/nccdh-resources-climate-change-and-health-equity
National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP). (2021.). Tools and Methods for Integrating Health into Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Policies and Strategies. www.ncchpp.ca/docs/2021-Climate-Change-Tools-And-Methods-Integrating-Health.pdf
Potvin L. & Masuda J. (2020). Climate change: A top priority for public health [Editorial]. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 111:815–817. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-020-00447-7
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). (2015). Climate Change Agreement is Public Health Agreement. https://unfccc.int/news/climate-change-agreement-is-public-health-agreement
Watts N., et al. (2018). The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Shaping the health of nations for centuries to come. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32594-7
Watts N., Adger N.W., Agnolucci P., et al. (2015). Health and climate change: Policy responses to protect public health. The Lancet, 386(10006):1861-1914. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60854-6