Climate justice, communication, co-benefits: Part 3 of the status report on climate change and health published

The third and final part of the German status report on climate change and health has been published in the Journal of Health Monitoring. In this final part of the report the researchers examine health equity with regard to the effects of climate change, the importance of target group-specific climate change communication and summarise the need for action based on the recommendations formulated in the other articles.

"Climate justice in the sense of avoidable, unjust social inequalities in exposure, vulnerability, and the effects of climate mitigation and adaptation measures on health inequalities is still insufficiently addressed in Germany," state the authors from the University of Bremen, the Centre for Planetary Health Policy (Berlin) and Bielefeld University in the first of the three articles.

In order to minimise the health effects of the climate crisis, countermeasures must be taken at all levels of society. "These changes should be complemented and accompanied by explanatory science and risk communication to improve their effectiveness and sustainability," the researchers explain in the second article. Based on four survey waves from the PACE study (Planetary Health Action Survey) in 2022/2023, they present the status of risk perception and readiness to act among the general population in Germany and offer practical recommendations for effective climate change communication.

The final contribution to the status report aims to synthesise all the options for action formulated in the individual contributions. The authors from ten institutions (including the Robert Koch Institute) also address the co-benefit approach: many climate protection measures related to nutrition and physical activities have positive economic, social, or climate policy consequences at the same time as health-promoting effects. The researchers conclude: "Health-related co-benefits can be a key factor in a successful transformation. ... Emphasising the additional health benefits of climate protection measures also makes health-promoting effects more visible and tangible for many people than climatic ones, which are often longer-term, appear diffuse, and tend to be located in other regions of the world".

The report was published by the Robert Koch Institute and consists of 14 individual contributions from a total of more than 90 authors from over 30 research institutions and authorities. The publication is coordinated as part of the "KlimGesundAkt" project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Health. The three-part status report aims to scientifically summarise the health effects of climate change and provide an overview of the options for counteracting the effects. The thematic focus of the first edition published on 1 June 2023 was the impact of climate change on infectious diseases. The second edition of the report, published on 6 September 2023, focused on non-communicable diseases.

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