Opportunities for adaptation to reduce the impacts and for mitigation to capitalise on the benefits of decarbonisation.
The pace and extent of recent environmental change, in particular climate change, poses serious challenges to global health gains made over recent decades. In previous work, the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) has covered several significant challenges relevant to climate change across Europe, for example in assessing the potential of negative emissions technologies in meeting emission targets, and monitoring trends in extreme weather events. In the present report, EASAC focuses on climate change and health. Although the European Union (EU) is very actively engaged in collective efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and to identify how best to adapt, the impacts of climate on health have been relatively neglected in EU policy. This must change. Our concern is motivated by the risks to health in the near future.
