Protecting Health from Climate Change in the WHO European Region

Tanja Wolf, Gerardo Sanchez Martinez, Hae-Kwan Cheong, Eloise Williams and Bettina Menne
Additional contact information
Tanja Wolf: WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn 53113, Germany
Gerardo Sanchez Martinez: WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn 53113, Germany
Hae-Kwan Cheong: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea
Eloise Williams: WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn 53113, Germany
Bettina Menne: WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn 53113, Germany

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: “How far are we in implementing climate change and health action in the WHO European Region?” This was the question addressed to representatives of WHO European Member States of the working group on health in climate change (HIC). Twenty-two Member States provided answers to a comprehensive questionnaire that focused around eight thematic areas (Governance; Vulnerability, impact and adaptation (health) assessments; Adaptation strategies and action plans; Climate change mitigation; Strengthening health systems; Raising awareness and building capacity; Greening health services; and Sharing best practices). Strong areas of development are climate change vulnerability and impact assessments, as well as strengthening health systems and awareness raising. Areas where implementation would benefit from further action are the development of National Health Adaptation Plans, greening health systems, sharing best practice and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in other sectors. At the Parma Conference in 2010, the European Ministerial Commitment to Act on climate change and health and the European Regional Framework for Action to protect health from climate change were endorsed by fifty three European Member States. The results of this questionnaire are the most comprehensive assessment so far of the progress made by WHO European Member States to protecting public health from climate change since the agreements in Parma and the World Health Assembly Resolution in 2008.

Keywords: climate change; health; adaptation; WHO European Region; questionnaire survey; Parma Commitments; European Environment and Health Process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/6/6265/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/6/6265/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:6:p:6265-6280:d:37099

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().