Climate change and social determinants of health: two interlinked agendas

Abstract

The issue of equity should be considered by policy-makers as a significant social mechanism, which can change environment and climate change at country and community level as it reinforces the close link that exists between public and sustainable development. Sustainable development consists of three core pillars, namely an environmental pillar, an economic pillar and a social pillar. The core question posed here addresses those three pillars with a specific focus on integrating physical and social environments as well as how these can influence the health status of populations. Climate change is indeed a new threat to public health and to the advances that are currently being made by nation-states in achieving and maintaining their achievements with regard to the Millennium Development Goals (1). Thus, climate change should be considered a priority area when addressing health inequalities (2). This is the main contribution of the CSDH to the ‘climate change agenda’ as it has the potential to close the gap between the economic and environmental pillars adding the necessary evidence to the social pillar to be integrated in any ‘climate change intervention’. Over the last 16 years, since the 1992 Eco Conference, theoretical and action priorities have been focusing primarily upon the environmental and economic pillars. Evidence demonstrates the importance given by the CSDH to the social components and core examples as demonstrated by the knowledge network on ‘Urban Settings’ are issues of transportation, energy, urbanization and urban infrastructures. It is worth stressing, that this is not merely a theoretical issue, but indeed a very practical issue. Often the first question raised by governments and communities involved in technical cooperation efforts is aimed at how best to tackle inequities within a practical context. There is consensus within the scientific community that the global climate is changing and that this change is affecting human health (3). In the Region of the Americas, the main areas of concern are: