Projects on health in mitigation and adaptation

WHO/Europe coordinates or contributes to international projects to identify the health needs related to adaptation to climate change.

Ongoing project 

• Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities (RAMSES) is a European Integrated Project, co-financed by the European Commission that started on 1 October 2012 and will run until 30 September 2017.
  WHO’s contribution is to help assess and estimate past and future impacts of climate change on health, and to calculate the associated damage and adaptation costs. This will be synthesized in an assessment tool to estimate the economic costs of health impacts of climate change in the selected cities.
  RAMSES will deliver evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the costs and benefits of a wide range of adaptation measures, such as land use planning and infrastructure alteration. This will be achieved by developing methods and tools to assess climate impacts, vulnerability and risks in cities; and methods to quantify the full economic costs and benefits of climate change adaptation.  Case studies will be conducted in selected cities in Europe and in developing countries.

Completed projects

• A seven-country initiative to protect health from climate change was conducted in 2008–2010 with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The project addressed adaptation and strengthening of health systems, built institutional capacity and identified specific intervention needs (e.g. early warning, energy efficiency in health care, etc).
• Climate change and adaptation strategies for human health in Europe (cCASHh). This European Union funded project (2001–2004) identified effective prevention policies to cope with the health effects of climate change. cCASHh carried out epidemiological, policy and economic analyses, as well as scenario development, for thermal stresses, extreme weather events, water- and foodborne diseases and vector-borne diseases. 25 Member States were involved.
• Climate, environment and health action plans and information systems (CEHAPIS), a joint WHO/Europe and European Commission initiative assessed the socioeconomic, health and environmental benefits of adaptation measures. CEHAPIS identified three policy areas that are crucial to promote action in EU Member States and protect population health.