Public health and climate change adaptation policies in the European Union (2018)

In 2017 the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Commission started a joint 18-month project to analyse developments in health policies to address adaptation to climate change in European Union countries and to compile a selection of good practice case studies. Results were extracted from a desk review of available documents and from interactions with country representatives from the health and environment sectors through a survey carried out from April to August 2017 and a workshop held in Bonn, Germany, in October 2017. Governance mechanisms for integrating climate action into health policy and planning seem well established in European Union countries. Several specific areas for technical improvement can be identified from the results, especially overall strengthening of capacities to ascertain the climate-sensitive disease burden in populations.