Health Equity in Climate Change Policies and Public Health Policies Related to Climate Change: Protocol for a Systematic Review

Abstract

The relationship between risks to health equity and climate change is well established, and various international organizations and literature has called for intersectoral action for tackling these issues. While there is a growing recognition of the importance of equity-focused responses to climate change, if and how health equity measures are incorporated into climate-change-related policy decisions has not yet been adequately explored. There are numerous approaches and frameworks for conducting policy analysis, and for understanding equity in the context of climate change and public health separately; however, a comprehensive framework for exploring the complexity of these interacting factors is hard to find. This review aims to systematically identify policy analysis frameworks and studies focusing on health equity in climate change related policies. Five electronic databases will be searched for peer-reviewed articles in English and from 2000. Articles will be subjected to systematic retrieval and quality assessment, and thematic analysis will be used for data analysis. The study findings will provide insight into different existing policy-analysis frameworks and policy-analysis approaches to understand health equity considerations in climate change policies and in health policies related to climate change.

Health Equity in Climate Change and Health Policies: A Systematic Review

“…It outlines seven major steps or stages of a policy cycle: (a) problem identification, (b) agenda setting, (c) policy formulation, (d) policy legitimization/decision making, (e) policy implementation, (f) policy evaluation and (g) policy change [22]. As discussed extensively in the protocol of this paper, even in the context of climate change and public health, both the health and climate change sectors seem to have used different policy analysis frameworks for different purposes [28]. This includes assessing the impact of policy actions, including the health outcomes, evaluating policy alternatives, understanding the co-benefits, and identifying the unintended consequences.…”

“…However, the extent of using these frameworks to understand the equity aspects of climate change-related policies is unclear. While a multidisciplinary body of research addressing the effects of climate change on health has emerged in the last decade, most of them have focused almost exclusively on the impacts of climate change on health outcomes while overlooking the importance of policies addressing health inequities [28]. Policy analysis studies adopting a holistic view of health equity and climate change seem underexplored.…”

“…Against this background, this study aimed to review the current evidence base to systematically synthesize existing health equity-focused policy analysis frameworks and policy analysis in climate change policies and health policies related to climate change. Various terms and concepts about SDOH, health equity and climate change-related policies were used to explore existing papers against the study domains [28].…”

Centering intersectional sustainability in leadership education: A case for the sustainable development goals

“…The burden of public health challenges is often felt most heavily by underserved and minority communities. Increasingly, public health challenges are shaped and even driven by climate change (see: Fox et al., 2019; Khanal et al., 2022; Lee et al., 2023). It is clear that the causes and consequences of climate change are deeply interwoven with global patterns of inequality and that the impacts of climate change act as multipliers of existing inequities and vulnerabilities.…”

Global Warming in Pakistan and Its Impact on Public Health as Viewed Through a Health Equity Lens

“…Countries that have the fewest resources with which to combat global warming, and simultaneously suffer an increased health burden as a result of climate change, are experiencing some of the worst impacts of global warming. 1 Among these, Pakistan is a prime example. In 2022, the temperature exceeded 122°F (50°C) in many regions of Pakistan.…”