Human Health And Climate Change In Pacific Island Countries

Climate change in the Pacific is threatening the health of Pacific islanders, as well as economic and social development. Extreme weather events, especially cyclones, floods and droughts, are displacing populations, causing injuries and psychological trauma, and are increasing the risks of infection and malnutrition. Hotter and wetter climates are increasing the risks for vector-borne disease. Disasters related to climate change are disrupting the delivery of health-care services and are increasing the risks of disease and death among vulnerable groups, especially young children, women of reproductive age, older people and people with disabilities. This report informs and encourages timely action by Member States towards building resilience of the health sector to climate change. It targets policy-makers and advisers in various sectors, public health practitioners, scientists and community stakeholders.

This document provides a risk assessment of various potential health impacts of climate change over the coming decades in Australia and, in specified instances, neighbouring populations of New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. There are large uncertainties in climate change health risk assessments. To address this, a range of climate change scenarios is used to represent a combination of the various intrinsic uncertainties around projections of future climate. Additional statistical uncertainties exist around the dose-response relationship between climate and each health impact, and the potential modifying effects of future adaptation.

There is serious concern about the impact of the changing climate. The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific has taken the initiative in addressing health issues related to climate change but further action is needed to support efforts to confront climate change in Member States and in various sectors. Health must be mainstreamed into efforts to address climate change and action must be coordinated and integrated across national boundaries and in all sectors. This report synthesizes information and approaches on climate change and health pertinent to Member States in the Western Pacific Region. It also examines efforts and initiatives by various experts and stakeholders with an in-depth look at experiences in seven Member States that reflect the diversity of the Region. Finally it offers recommendations for policy-makers.

Small Island Developing States are often depicted as being among the most vulnerable of all places to the effects of climate change, and they are a cause celebre of many involved in climate science, politics and the media. Yet while small island developing states are much talked about, the production of both scientific knowledge and policies to protect the rights of these nations and their people has been remarkably slow. This book is the first to apply a critical approach to climate change science and policy processes in the South Pacific region. It shows how groups within politically and scientifically powerful countries appropriate the issue of island vulnerability in ways that do not do justice to the lives of island people. It argues that the ways in which islands and their inhabitants are represented in climate science and politics seldom leads to meaningful responses to assist them to adapt to climate change. Throughout, the authors focus on the hitherto largely ignored social impacts of climate change, and demonstrate that adaptation and mitigation policies cannot be effective without understanding the social systems and values of island societies.

This publication, prepared jointly by the WHO, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, considers the public health challenges arising from global climate change and options for policy responses, with particular focus on the health sector. Aspects discussed include: an overview of historical developments and recent scientific assessments; weather and climate change; population vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of public health systems; the IPCC Third Assessment report; tasks for public health scientists; the health impacts of climate extremes; climate change, infectious diseases and the level of disease burdens; ozone depletion, ultraviolet radiation and health; and methodological issues in monitoring health effects of climate change.

This book analyses the regional complexes of climate security in the Pacific. Pacific Island States and Territories (PICTs) have long been cast as the frontline of climate change and placed within the grand architecture of global climate governance. The region provides compelling new insights into the ways climate change is constructed, governed, and shaped by (and in turn shapes), regional and global climate politics. By focusing on climate security as it is constructed in the Pacific and how this concept mobilises resources and shapes the implementation of climate finance, the book provides an up-to-date account of the way regional organizations in the Pacific have contributed to the search for solutions to the problem of climate insecurity. In the context of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015, the focus of this book on regional governance offers a concise and innovative account of climate politics in the prevailing global context and one with implications for the study of climate security in other regions, particularly in the developing world.