Heat Extremes, Public Health Impacts, and Adaptation Policy in Germany

Hans-Guido Mücke and Jutta Maria Litvinovitch
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Hans-Guido Mücke: Department of Environmental Hygiene, German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt/UBA), Corrensplatz 1, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Jutta Maria Litvinovitch: Unit ‘Health in Climate Change’, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit/BMU), P.O. Box 120629, 53048 Bonn, Germany

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: Global warming with increasing weather extremes, like heat events, is enhancing impacts to public health. This essay focuses on unusual extreme summer heat extremes occurring in Germany at higher frequency, longer duration, and with new temperature records. Large areas of the country are affected, particularly urban settlements, where about 77% of the population lives, which are exposed to multiple inner-city threats, such as urban heat islands. Because harm to public health is directly released by high ambient air temperatures, local and national studies on heat-related morbidity and mortality indicate that vulnerable groups such as the elderly population are predominantly threatened with heat-related health problems. After the severe mortality impacts of the extreme summer heat 2003 in Europe, in 2008, Germany took up the National Adaptation Strategy on Climate Change to tackle and manage the impacts of weather extremes, for example to protect people’s health against heat. Public health systems and services need to be better prepared to improve resilience to the effects of extreme heat events, e.g., by implementing heat health action plans. Both climate protection as well as adaptation are necessary in order to be able to respond as adequate as possible to the challenges posed by climate change.

Keywords: heat-related health impacts; mortality; morbidity; heat health warning system; heat health action plan; climate change; national adaptation strategy; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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