Climate Action | Adaptation to climate change

Health

Climate change will have an effect on human, animal and plant health. Although it is not creating new or unknown health threats, it will amplify some environment-related health issues. Most public health measures and systems are already in place but they need to be modified in order to deal with new situations and threats.

Impacts on human health

Several national assessments, as well as reports from the World Health Organisation and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, underline the effects that climate change will have on the health of the EU population.

Climate change affects human health in a number of ways. Direct impacts come from temperature-related illnesses and deaths or extreme weather events. Meanwhile, climate changes will affect the spread of water-, food- or vector-borne borne diseases and have other impacts on food or water supplies.

Temperatures
It is estimated that the mortality rate will increase by 1-4% for each 1oC rise in temperature. This could mean the equivalent of 30,000 extra deaths per year by the 2030s (1).The heat wave in France in 2003 caused more than 70,000 extra deaths, with the elderly population hit the hardest.

On the other hand, milder winters in many areas will reduce the number of cold-related deaths.

Diseases

Vector-borne diseases, which are transmitted to humans via insects such as mosquitoes, are set to rise. This is because insect populations, their geographic range and seasons of activity will increase with higher temperatures.

Climate change will also negatively impact on air quality by increasing ozone levels and the concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere. These can contribute to higher rates of cardio-respiratory diseases.

Infectious diseases that are sensitive to temperature and rainfall, such as food-borne diseases (Salmonella) or water-borne diseases (in particular in case of floods or droughts) are also predicted to rise with higher temperatures and extreme weather events.

EU actions

The EU Health Strategy  for 2008-2013 identifies the protection of people from health threats due to climate change as a priority.

The European Commission’s White Paper on ‘Adapting to climate change’  and accompanying document  describes how climate change will impact human, animal and plant health and identifies priorities for adaptation actions.

Action at the EU-level focuses on improving knowledge of the connections between climate change and health; developing guidelines on the health impacts of climate change; reinforcing disease surveillance mechanisms; improving cooperation between health authorities and international organisations; strengthening action plans for extreme weather events; improving public health training; and building closer links between environmental and health policies.

The EU’s Health programme for 2008 to 2013 funds several projects targeting climate-related effects on public health:

• EUROHEIS (European Health and Environment Information System for Risk Assessment and Disease Mapping) improves analysis, reporting and dissemination of environmental health information.
• Aphekom developed information and tools on air pollution and the impacts on health and society.
• EUROSUN monitors ultraviolet exposure in the EU and its effect on the incidence of skin cancers and cataracts.
• EuroHEAT looked at health system preparedness and meteorological early-warning systems in case of heat waves.
• EUROMOMO developed a routine public health mortality monitoring system to detect and measure excess number of deaths related to influenza and other possible public health threats.
• Climate-Trap looked at surveillance and preparedness training on public health effects related to climate change.
• HIALINE looked at the effects of climate change on airborne allergens.

Monitoring actions

The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) is preparing surveillance and vulnerabilities maps across Europe. ECDC supports Member States in assessing their health vulnerabilities on climate change and the development of local or national adaptation strategies. It funded a project in 2007 assessing the threats from vector-borne diseases, with climate change being a key factor.

ECDC set up a network of public health experts called VBORNET to monitor vector-borne diseases across the EU, including chikungunya, dengue, West Nile, tick-borne encephalitis, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, lyme disease, tularemia, rickettsiosis, leishmaniasis and sandfly fever.

Research

The EU’s Framework Programme for Research (FP7) has also funded a number of projects related to health and climate:

• The PHEWE  project (Assessment and Prevention of acute Health Effects of Weather Conditions in Europe) assessed the acute health effects of extreme weather, during the winter and summer seasons over several years, in 16 European cities with different climatic conditions. It then proposed preventive strategies to reduce the health impact of weather conditions.
• cCASHh  investigated the potential harmful effects of climate change on our health.
• EDEN aims to identify, evaluate and catalogue European ecosystems and environmental conditions linked to global change, which can influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents.
• MICRODIS plans to strengthen preparedness, mitigation and prevention strategies in order to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of extreme events on communities.
• Intarese is developing and applying new, integrated approaches to the assessment of environmental health risks.
• ArcRisk is an international EU-funded research activity looking at the linkages between environmental contaminants, climate change and human health.
• CLEAR assesses whether climate change is associated with the increased release of environmental contaminants and whether these influence human reproductive health.
• ICEPURE is studying the adverse and beneficial health effects of exposure to ultraviolet light radiation.
• ESCAPE is researching the long-term human health effects of air pollution in Europe.

Impacts on animal health

Climate is an important factor in determining the geographical range of the vectors (for instance mosquitos) that carry a range of diseases. There have been increases in malaria, tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme disease and Leishmaniasis in Europe in recent decades, though there are many other contributing factors such as increased global trade.(2)

The dynamics of non vector-borne diseases such as avian influenza may also be influenced by changes to migratory routes of wild waterfowl.The new Community Animal Health Strategy focuses on preventing, rather than reacting to, animal diseases. Its Action plan considers the influence of climate change on animal health.

A new Animal Disease Information System (ADIS) is being developed to improve the gathering of epidemiological data. Stepping up animal disease surveillance and the establishment of further vaccine banks for certain animal diseases will enable risk managers to better respond to emerging disease situations.

Impacts on plant health

It is expected that global warming will affect cropping systems, plant breeding and natural vegetation such as forests, meadows and woodland.

The EU plant health regime – currently under review – focuses on quarantine to combat pests and diseases that can impact agriculture, forestry and the environment. A new EU plant health law addressing the consequences of climate change will be developed.

(1) Commission staff working document on the Human, Animal and Plant Health Impacts of Climate Change  accompanying the White Paper on adapting to climate change, p5
(2) The PESETA study: Impacts of climate change in human health in Europe, p8