4.E. Workshop: The role of National Public Health Institutes and IANPHI as Key Climate Actors

Abstract   Climate change is arguably the greatest threat to population health worldwide. Urgent action is needed to mitigate and adapt to the impacts. National public health institutes (NPHIs) are key actors in preventing illness and improving the health and wellbeing of their populations. They therefore have a crucial role to play in addressing climate change and making it central to their agendas. They can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change affects health, translate this knowledge into policy advice, and identify health co-benefits and possible harms of mitigation and adaptation measures to support the implementation of healthy measures within and beyond the health sector. NPHIs are also responsible for reducing their own footprint through “greening” and can role model and support other organisations in this regard. The International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) recognises the threat that climate change poses and, to this end, published the “IANPHI Roadmap for Action on Health and Climate Change” in November 2021. This roadmap highlights the essential role of NPHIs’ as “key climate actors”. NPHIs are at different stages of progress on climate change and health, and there is therefore need and opportunity to learn from best practices and to liaise and work together to address shared challenges. It is also essential that NPHIs have an ongoing collaboration with other actors, such as academics, civil society, NGOs and other non-state actors, within and beyond the health sector, in order to learn from other perspectives and sources of knowledge and to ensure coherence and joint action on climate change and health across the system. This workshop therefore aims to promote discussion and exchange and to raise the visibility of NPHIs as key climate actors in order to strengthen their individual and shared contribution. The workshop will also ensure that the IANPHI Roadmap remains front of mind a year after publication. It will also give the opportunity to NPHIs to share their progress since then, as well as promote coherence and exchange in their continued efforts. The workshop will start with a presentation of the IANPHI Roadmap, followed by three examples from NPHIs on their progress on climate change strategy development and implementation. It will then be followed by an interactive session and discussion on NPHIs’ priorities in this area, on how NPHIs and other actors can best exchange and work together, and on how IANPHI as a global network of NPHIs can promote and support NPHI and stakeholder cooperation. The presentations are coherent together in offering the Roadmap's vision as well as a set of diverse examples that illustrate the role of NPHIs on climate change and health in practice. Key messages • Emphasis of the important role that NPHIs have in addressing climate change and health, as well as the value of their partnerships and intersectoral working, which can be supported by IANPHI. • Promotion of discussion and new ideas between the presenters and the audience on how to ensure health is at the forefront when tackling climate change.


Background:
City design can have major health and environmental implications.The overall layout of cities influences air quality, as urban sprawl can encourage the use of motorised vehicles and decrease active travelling.Furthermore, lack of trees has a negative impact on particulate matter levels and contributes to the urban heat island effect.There is a growing interest for creating an urban environment conducive of healthier lifestyles.

Methods:
The analysis uses the five OECD criteria to assess best practices in public health -Effectiveness, Efficiency, Equity, Evidencebase, and Extent of coverage -to carry out a systematic assessment of selected candidate best practices to improve the public health potential of cities.The impact of scaling up these interventions within and across countries is evaluated by using the OECD SPHeP-NCD microsimulation model.

Results:
Interventions such as Superblocks in Barcelona, which reshapes the city layout to make them more people centric and less vehicles reliant, or Cycle Superhighways from Denmark, which develops cycling networks, have a the potential to avoid a significant number of chronic diseases by promoting an active lifestyle and decreasing transportrelated pollution.Such interventions can also decrease healthcare expenditure and, if well designed, health disparities.Discussion: While many urban design interventions are a good investment for countries and, in general, there is good support, a number

Background:
Climate & environmental change are disproportionally impacting small states, given higher costs per capita associated with coping with the immediate risks of environmental & climatic events.Climate change has been identified as a serious public health threat.This is especially true for heatwaves in the Mediterranean Basin, with poor air quality worsening the health impacts during periods of extreme heat, often affecting already high levels of chronic diseases.Promoting climate change adaptation measures is crucial to address the negative socio-economic impacts brought by heatwaves, & its interactions with poor air quality.While awareness about the link between poor air quality & heat-waves is gaining momentum, there is still a gap in policy responses, especially in small states.This research assesses the level of preparedness of the European Union, with a focus on adaptation to heat-waves since the extreme European heat-wave of 2003.A case study on Malta is also presented, aiming at discovering what measures the island is adopting to tackle the problems arising from the interaction between poor air quality & heatwaves.

Methods:
A systematic literature review is conducted, investigating the links between heat-waves & air pollution post 2003, followed by a qualitative content analysis to assess the preparedness of climate change adaptation measures in this regard.

Results and conclusions:
The findings of this research show that the link between heat waves & poor air quality has not been sufficiently acknowledged by academia, with evident gaps in applied small states research.Also, a closer look at key adaptation policies & measures in Malta finds that heat waves & poor air quality are hardly been linked, leaving much scope to introduce policy & economic instruments to tackle both public health risks to address growing chronic diseases, & not to compromise current & future socioeconomic wellbeing.

4.E. Workshop: The role of National Public Health Institutes and IANPHI as Key Climate Actors
Abstract citation ID: ckac129.223 Organised by: Robert Koch Institute, IANPHI (France) Chair persons: Angela Fehr (Germany), Se ´bastien Denys (France) Contact: taylora@rki.deClimate change is arguably the greatest threat to population health worldwide.Urgent action is needed to mitigate and adapt to the impacts.National public health institutes (NPHIs) are key actors in preventing illness and improving the health and wellbeing of their populations.They therefore have a crucial role to play in addressing climate change and making it central to their agendas.They can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change affects health, translate this knowledge into policy advice, and identify health co- The International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) collectively builds public health capacity by connecting, developing and strengthening national public health institutes worldwide.IANPHI recognizes climate action as a critical global public health intervention and acknowledges that public health interventions on environmental and socioeconomic determinants of health are essential drivers of climate adaptation and mitigation.Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic also provides a unique opportunity to reset business as usual and strengthen actions on climate change, biodiversity and health, while reducing social and health inequities in the long term.However, effective contributions of National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) to adaptation plans and mitigation strategies for climate change have remained limited, with a primary focus on health surveillance to date.In this context, IANPHI developed a roadmap to support and reinforce the role of NPHIs in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.Five priority actions were identified: 1. Advocate for strengthening NPHIs capacities to contribute effectively to climate and biodiversity research, policies, and action 2. Enhance capacity, competence and training through peerto-peer support and knowledge sharing between NPHIs 3. Increase collaboration with international and regional organizations active in the fields of public health and climate change 4. Support the greening of public health services 5. Monitor progress in the NPHIs' involvement in climate change policies through key indicators In addition to discussing the roadmap, the presentation will focus on actions that IANPHI's Climate Change and Health committee initiated to reinforce the role of NPHIs in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.This presentation will also provide information on how IANPHI can engage and support national public health institutes as key actors in the fight against climate change.
Abstract citation ID: ckac129.225How RIVM is responding to the challenge of protecting human health from the effects of climate change -now and in the future

Lisbeth Hall
L Hall 1 , J Zwartkruis 1 , G Velders 1 1 Environment and Safety Division, RIVM, Bilthoven, Netherlands Contact: lisbeth.hall@rivm.nl In 2020 the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published its vision on climate change and health.This vision reflects the position of RIVM in society and highlights the transdisciplinary and collaborative nature of our work on this topic.We define this societal challenge as: protecting and promoting the health of people throughout society with regard to climate change and climate measures.The purpose of our work on this challenge is to support all levels of Dutch government with policy development and implementation and to forge links with both national and international organisations to further knowledge and expertise.The focus of our work, in collaboration with the aforementioned actors, is as follows: 1. Knowledge translation of the health impacts of climate change for the public and government.Collating and disseminating easily digestible information for public health services on evidence-based, effective adaptation measures.Developing tools and instruments to ensure health benefits and limit unintended consequences of adaptation measures, such as green and blue spaces.Prioritising research on climate change and health through a research agenda.Workshop participants will be encouraged to provide feedback to inform RIVM's future work and that of other national public health institutes, and to ensure we are fully supporting our stakeholders.
15th European Public Health Conference 2022 2. Developing instruments to promote health in relation to climate change and mitigation and adaptation measures.3. Implementation research on solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.4. Strengthening national and international cooperation to enhance synergies in our work.In the workshop we will present examples of our work: Quantifying the health impacts of climate change, now and in the future under different global warming scenarios.Developing a set of indicators to monitor the health impacts of climate change and mitigation and adaptation plans and actions.