Climate Change Adaptation in Health Sector

Humanity is confronted with fast-changing environmental disruptions impacting the health and wellbeing of people worldwide. By now, the complexity and interconnectedness of climate related health risks threatens gains accomplished for public health and sustainable development globally.

The climate crisis has built up to a global health emergency affecting particularly the most vulnerable populations in low-resource and humanitarian contexts where an overlap of climate and humanitarian crisis exists. While health systems are struggling to keep pace with the rising number of disasters, there is a deep discrepancy between climate related health demands and responsive, adaptive capacity of public health systems and stakeholders leaving the health needs of the most vulnerable unmet.   

Globally, health actors and health systems are challenged with a new dimension of health risks and frequently recurring system shocks of climate related disasters, droughts, floods, food insecurity, heat waves, infectious disease, migration, and armed conflicts.

How can human health be protected in a changing climate? Which concepts, measures and tools exist to address arising challenges and health threats?

Using a system approach this two-day workshop combines theoretical lectures and practical case studies, group work and discussion. Participants will learn how climate change affects human health and health systems especially in low-resource and humanitarian contexts. They will be enabled to apply a planetary health lens to their work, to consider public health in dependency to environmental and social determinants, to strengthen climate and environment resilient health systems and support efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of health systems.

The course requires basic knowledge on climate change adaptation (it is possible to attend first our introductory course: Introduction to Main Concepts and Terminologies in Climate Change Adaptation, but it is not obligatory). If you are interested in gaining credit towards a Certificate of Advanced Studies in "Anticipatory Humanitarian Action", you need to complete this course and two additional specific CCA courses, under prerequisite of passing the exam in form of individual work after completion of all courses (please also see the general exam regulation of aha).