2015-09-23-世界卫生组织-Strengthening_health_resilience_to_climate_change_24页_876kb

Summary of Strengthening Health Resilience to Climate Change

Core Content

This document outlines the health impacts of climate change and proposes a framework for strengthening health systems to build resilience against these risks. It is part of a series of technical briefings prepared for the World Health Organization (WHO) Health and Climate Conference, with a focus on the health sector's role in adaptation and mitigation.

Main Health Impacts of Climate Change

Climate change affects health in multiple ways, including:

• Direct effects: Increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events (heat waves, fires, floods, storms) lead to higher risks of heat-related mortality, heat exhaustion, and exacerbation of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory, and kidney diseases. These impacts are rated as very high confidence.
• Indirect effects through natural systems: Rising temperatures and humidity, changing precipitation patterns, and increased sea temperatures contribute to the spread of vector-borne, food- and water-borne diseases. These effects are also very high confidence.
• Socially mediated effects: Climate change impacts food production, increases undernutrition, and reduces labor productivity in vulnerable populations. It also affects mental health, economic growth, and poverty reduction, which are rated as high confidence.
• Combined effects: The overall impact of climate change is expected to be more negative than positive, with high confidence in this assessment.

Some potential positive effects, such as modest reductions in cold-related mortality, are noted but are considered to have low confidence due to limited evidence.

Key Vulnerable Populations

• Children are particularly vulnerable due to their developmental stage and long-term exposure to environmental changes. They are at risk of malnutrition, heat-related illnesses, and infectious diseases.
• Gender disparities are significant, with women and girls disproportionately affected by climate change due to factors like food insecurity, limited access to water, and increased vulnerability to health risks.
• Low- and middle-income countries are expected to bear the brunt of climate-related health impacts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Small Island Developing States.

Role of the Health Sector

The health sector plays a critical role in both preventing and responding to climate-related health risks, and must also take leadership and regulatory roles in sectors that influence health, such as water and sanitation, agriculture, and disaster risk reduction.

Key Functions to Strengthen Health Systems

The document outlines ten functions that map onto the six core building blocks of health systems, with an added focus on climate resilience:

1. Health governance and policy – Ensuring climate resilience is integrated into health policies and strategies.
2. Human resources for health – Training and deploying health workers to address climate-sensitive health risks.
3. Information systems – Strengthening data collection and monitoring for climate-related health events.
4. Essential products and technologies – Ensuring access to medicines, vaccines, and technologies that mitigate climate health risks.
5. Service delivery – Enhancing the capacity of health services to respond to climate-related emergencies.
6. Financing – Allocating resources for climate adaptation and health protection.

These functions are essential to building climate-resilient health systems and ensuring that health services can adapt to future climate conditions.

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges

• Lack of awareness and policy coherence regarding climate and health linkages.
• Insufficient institutional and technical capacity to design and implement adaptation plans.
• Limited resources to support implementation of climate-resilient health measures.

Opportunities

• The UNFCCC negotiations and the post-2015 development agenda provide opportunities to align climate and health policies.
• The UNFCCC offers technical and financial support mechanisms that can be leveraged to integrate climate change into traditional health programs.
• A systematic and sustained approach is needed to capitalize on these opportunities and advance health protection from climate change.

Conclusion

Climate change is a significant threat to global health, with disproportionately severe impacts on vulnerable populations. Strengthening health systems to build resilience is essential, and requires a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach that includes both preventive and curative functions within the health sector and collaboration with other sectors. The document emphasizes the importance of addressing equity, gender, and social determinants in climate health adaptation, and highlights the need for policy coherence, capacity building, and resource mobilization to effectively protect human health from climate change.