Climate change is a defining issue of the 21st century – profoundly influencing public health, development, human rights, peace, political stability, biodiversity, and natural resources, with the poorest populations experiencing the worst consequences. The Paris Agreement aspires to keep global temperature increases below 1.5°C. To accomplish this, or at least keep an overshoot of 1.5°C modest and temporary, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must decline between 40-60% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, and reach net zero by 2050.
Responses to climate change generally fall categories of either mitigation and adaptation. Adaptation is arguably secondary prevention, generally intended to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts. Mitigation can be considered primary prevention, intended to reduce the temperature increase due to climate change. Many strategies work toward both mitigation and adaptation but are framed as being primarily in one category.
Mitigation strategies intervene at different points along the pathway toward global temperature increase, including: reducing GHG emissions, removing GHGs from the atmosphere, and even reflecting incoming sunlight. While the feasibility and efficacy of many climate mitigation strategies are fairly well understood, a comparatively small body of literature evaluates the possible health consequences of these strategies through both direct and indirect pathways, the distribution of consequences across time, geography, and populations, and their ability to alleviate or exacerbate existing and historical burdens. Information on these consequences is important for designing equitable and just climate mitigation strategies, public discussion and policy decision-making around these strategies, and ensuring that other public health, economic, or sustainability goals are met.
Papers submitted to this section must:
• Illustrate/explain the potential pathways in a causal/systems model, directed acyclic graph, causal chain model, or similar conceptual framework
• Evaluate a system that contains at least two different disciplines (e.g. public health and economics).
• Thoroughly discuss model assumptions and estimate uncertainties, as well as clearly describe what the model framework does not include
• discuss uncertainties, assumptions, and relevant gaps their research does not answer
This Research Topic welcomes manuscripts that evaluate health consequences of climate mitigation or hybrid mitigation/adaptation strategies through one or more pathways, either direct (e.g. air quality improvement, promoting active transport), or indirect (e.g. improved food security, forest preservation), along with estimating progress toward mitigating climate change. Retrospective, ongoing, and prospective studies based anywhere in the world are welcome, along with observational, clinical, and impact assessment studies, including risk assessments, life cycle assessments, and health impact assessments, as well as simulation modeling studies that employ economic, policy, geospatial, or other modeling techniques.
Climate change is a defining issue of the 21st century – profoundly influencing public health, development, human rights, peace, political stability, biodiversity, and natural resources, with the poorest populations experiencing the worst consequences. The Paris Agreement aspires to keep global temperature increases below 1.5°C. To accomplish this, or at least keep an overshoot of 1.5°C modest and temporary, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must decline between 40-60% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, and reach net zero by 2050.
Responses to climate change generally fall categories of either mitigation and adaptation. Adaptation is arguably secondary prevention, generally intended to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts. Mitigation can be considered primary prevention, intended to reduce the temperature increase due to climate change. Many strategies work toward both mitigation and adaptation but are framed as being primarily in one category.
Mitigation strategies intervene at different points along the pathway toward global temperature increase, including: reducing GHG emissions, removing GHGs from the atmosphere, and even reflecting incoming sunlight. While the feasibility and efficacy of many climate mitigation strategies are fairly well understood, a comparatively small body of literature evaluates the possible health consequences of these strategies through both direct and indirect pathways, the distribution of consequences across time, geography, and populations, and their ability to alleviate or exacerbate existing and historical burdens. Information on these consequences is important for designing equitable and just climate mitigation strategies, public discussion and policy decision-making around these strategies, and ensuring that other public health, economic, or sustainability goals are met.
Papers submitted to this section must:
• Illustrate/explain the potential pathways in a causal/systems model, directed acyclic graph, causal chain model, or similar conceptual framework
• Evaluate a system that contains at least two different disciplines (e.g. public health and economics).
• Thoroughly discuss model assumptions and estimate uncertainties, as well as clearly describe what the model framework does not include
• discuss uncertainties, assumptions, and relevant gaps their research does not answer
This Research Topic welcomes manuscripts that evaluate health consequences of climate mitigation or hybrid mitigation/adaptation strategies through one or more pathways, either direct (e.g. air quality improvement, promoting active transport), or indirect (e.g. improved food security, forest preservation), along with estimating progress toward mitigating climate change. Retrospective, ongoing, and prospective studies based anywhere in the world are welcome, along with observational, clinical, and impact assessment studies, including risk assessments, life cycle assessments, and health impact assessments, as well as simulation modeling studies that employ economic, policy, geospatial, or other modeling techniques.
