Out now: the Health & Wellbeing Climate Adaptation Plan for QLD
Saturday 01 December 2018
The Queensland Department of Environment and Science engaged the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) to develop a Human Health and Wellbeing Climate Adaptation Plan (H-CAP) with the health, aged care and childcare sectors in Queensland.
The goal of the H-CAP is to support human health and wellbeing services to be innovative and resilient in managing the risks associated with a changing climate, and to harness the opportunities provided by responding to the challenges of climate change. It provides a preliminary climate change adaptation framework and guidance for stakeholders across health care, aged care, and childcare services.
The consultation revealed concerns among stakeholders that are consistent with multiple lines of evidence: there is a policy gap in relation to addressing the health impacts of climate change.
To help guide efforts towards climate change adaptation among health and wellbeing services in Queensland, the H-CAP proposes 10 priority adaptation meausres, together with a vision and a set of guiding principles. The priority adaptation measures offer high level guidance for services, policymakers and the community to prioritise and plan for climate adaptation. They include examples of possible responses at service, system and government levels, informed by stakeholders and existing best practice.
The H-CAP is informed by existing work on this topic, including:
- CAHA's Framework for a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Well-being for Australia, the development of which was led by CAHA, following two years consultation and collaborative planning and development.
- The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, a global interdisciplinary project to monitor the impacts of climate change on human health, and track national and global progress to respond.
