A Comparative Analysis of Climate-Risk and Extreme Event-Related Impacts on Well-Being and Health: Policy Implications

Abstract

There are various climate risks that are caused or influenced by climate change. They are known to have a wide range of physical, economic, environmental and social impacts. Apart from damages to the physical environment, many climate risks (climate variability, extreme events and climate-related hazards) are associated with a variety of impacts on human well-being, health, and life-supporting systems. These vary from boosting the proliferation of vectors of diseases (e.g., mosquitos), to mental problems triggered by damage to properties and infrastructure. There is a great variety of literature about the strong links between climate change and health, while there is relatively less literature that specifically examines the health impacts of climate risks and extreme events. This paper is an attempt to address this knowledge gap, by compiling eight examples from a set of industrialised and developing countries, where such interactions are described. The policy implications of these phenomena and the lessons learned from the examples provided are summarised. Some suggestions as to how to avert the potential and real health impacts of climate risks are made, hence assisting efforts to adapt to a problem whose impacts affect millions of people around the world. All the examples studied show some degree of vulnerability to climate risks regardless of their socioeconomic status and need to increase resilience against extreme events.

An Assessment of the Relationships between Extreme Weather Events, Vulnerability, and the Impacts on Human Wellbeing in Latin America

“…Efforts towards a better understanding of such human impacts have progressed and expanded considerably in the last few years [ 14 , 15 ]. Climate change affects human wellbeing and health in many direct and indirect ways [ 16 , 17 ]. These impacts are primary (direct), secondary, and tertiary (indirect ones).…”

“…Also, the adaptive capacity of the human systems in LA is low when compared with the industrialized countries, particularly against EWEs, and their vulnerability is high [ 19 ]. People living in poor households and/or exposed to climate hazards, for example, are particularly vulnerable to the resulting health risks and are exposed longer to the health consequences from slow-onset climate change problems, and particularly, sudden EWEs (e.g., cold and heat stress, droughts, flash floods, crop failure, and sea-level rise), and their related CSDs [ 12 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. For instance, from 2000 to 2015 the disasters in South America have increased significantly affecting almost 74 million people [ 21 ].…”

“…The working hypothesis is, as modified from Leal Filho et al [ 17 ]: “All countries and regions worldwide show some degree of vulnerability, are exposed and are directly or indirectly impacted by climate-related hazards regardless of their socioeconomic status and readiness”.…”

“…The basic concepts, terms, and assumptions of the analytical framework that is used to construct causal explanations [ 28 ] of the Drivers-Vulnerability-Actions interactions ( Figure 1 ) causing the observed Climate-Sensitive Disasters and their impacts on human wellbeing to be as follows (based on [ 1 , 17 , 25 , 26 ]): External climate drivers (threats) are (assumed) uncontrollable on the short- and medium-term (e.g., 2025–2040) at the local level, whereas socioeconomic driving determinants are (considered) (almost) to be uncontrollable on the short-term, but potentially modifiable [ 17 ]; The drivers of this system are external: climate change and extreme weather events (assumed uncontrollable on the medium-term), and socio-economic determinants of public health (supposed modifiable on the short- to medium-term); internal: knowledge and values; human safety, public health infrastructure, and investment (assumed as controllable on the short-term but dependent on the level of socioeconomic development, perception of risks, and political willingness); The vulnerability is composed by (1) the exposure (climatic and geographical characteristics, e.g., climate type/sub-types, location, and population density) [ 1 , 25 ], assumed as being uncontrollable on the short- to medium-term, (2) the sensitivity (e.g., % of population affected by climate-hazards and their susceptibility [ 1 , 25 , 26 ]), and (3) the adaptability composed of the adaptive capacity and readiness [ 25 ]. The components ii and iii are moderately modifiable on the medium-term; The actions relate to the country-level decision-making level (anticipatory climate adaptation) that are both influenced by and influence the concepts and terms mentioned above.…”

How thirsty is our beef? : understanding water use for feed production

“…For example, climate change is predicted to cause both more frequent droughts and excessive rain events in Latin America, which will severely affect water availability for agriculture (e.g. ECLAC, 2016;Filho et al, 2018). Schyns et al (2019) estimate that for parts of the year Brazil already requires more green water than is sustainably available.…”