Methodological and Technological issues in Technology Transfer

Adaptation refers to actions taken to lessen the impact of the (anticipated) change in climate. Adaptive actions to reduce health impacts can be thought of in terms of the classical categorisation of preventive measures in public health (Last, 1995):

Primary prevention can be addressed at many levels - including, most radically, the mitigation of the climate change process. In general, secondary and tertiary prevention are less effective than primary prevention, although they are often practically and politically easier to implement. In addition, there are both ethical and social reasons to prefer primary preventive action wherever it is feasible. In the long term, secondary and tertiary prevention measures usually turn out to be more expensive than primary prevention.

A three-fold categorisation of strategies to protect population health is: (i) administrative or legislative, (ii) technical/engineering, and (iii) personal (behavioural) (Patz, 1996). Legislative or regulatory action can be taken by government, requiring compliance by all, or by designated classes of, persons. Alternatively, an adaptive action may be encouraged on a voluntary basis, via advocacy, education or economic incentives. The former type of action would normally be taken at international, national or community level; the latter would range from international to individual levels. Adaptation options can operate at different spatial levels, from local to global. Some of the options are of a structural and general kind, facilitating and maximising preventive impacts. Other options are of a more specific kind, entailing procedures, technologies or behavioural changes. Table 14.4. shows the major adaptation options for reducing the health impacts of climate change, and the major considerations that bear upon their effectiveness.

* G = Global, N = National, L = Local.

Actions to reduce the health impacts of climate change are basically public policy response options and are, therefore, in the latter system. The ultimate goal of these interventions is the reduction, with the least cost, of diseases, injuries, disabilities, suffering and death. There is little quantitative information about how humans adapt either biologically or culturally to climate change. Most assessments of the health impacts of climate change have therefore not addressed adaptation explicitly and quantitatively. However, some assessments of the impacts of thermal stress have modelled, by extrapolation from short-term observations, the effect of longer-term acclimatisation at the population level (e.g., Kalkstein and Greene, 1997). The most effective way to reduce potential health impacts will be through adaptation technologies that reduce the overall level of population vulnerability. The potential impacts of climate change on food and water are not seen as the responsibility of public health agencies.

Table 14.4 Adaptation options to reduce the potential health impacts of climate change
Adaptation option	Level*	No. of people that benefit	Feasibility	Barriers	Cost
Interagency cooperation	G, R, N	+++	++	++	+
Reduction of social vulnerability	N,L	+++	+	++	+
Improvements of public health infrastructure	N,L	++	+	+	++
Early warning and epidemic forecasting	L	++	++	+	+
Support for infectious disease control	N,L	++	+++	+	+
Monitoring and surveillance of environmental, biological and health status		++	+++	+	++
Integrated environmental management	L	+	++	+	++
Urban design (including transport systems)	L	+	+	++	++
Housing, sanitation, water quality	L	+	+	+	+
Specific technologies (e.g., air conditioning)	L	+	+++	+	+
Public education	L	+++	+++	+	+

14.4 Adaptation Options to Reduce Health Impacts