Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing Work on Climate Change and Public Health

Solange Gould and Linda Rudolph
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Solange Gould: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall #7360, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Linda Rudolph: Center for Climate Change and Health, Public Health Institute, 555 12th St. 10th Floor, Oakland, CA 94607, USA

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-24

Abstract: Climate change poses a major threat to public health. Strategies that address climate change have considerable potential to benefit health and decrease health inequities, yet public health engagement at the intersection of public health, equity, and climate change has been limited. This research seeks to understand the barriers to and opportunities for advancing work at this nexus. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews ( N = 113) with public health and climate change professionals and thematic analysis. Barriers to public health engagement in addressing climate change include individual perceptions that climate change is not urgent or solvable and insufficient understanding of climate change’s health impacts and programmatic connections. Institutional barriers include a lack of public health capacity, authority, and leadership; a narrow framework for public health practice that limits work on the root causes of climate change and health; and compartmentalization within and across sectors. Opportunities include integrating climate change into current public health practice; providing inter-sectoral support for climate solutions with health co-benefits; and using a health frame to engage and mobilize communities. Efforts to increase public health sector engagement should focus on education and communications, building leadership and funding, and increasing work on the shared root causes of climate change and health inequities.

Keywords: climate change; public health; health equity; qualitative research; public health practice; intersectoral collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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