Korea’s Climate Change and Health Forum: the Role of Scientific Experts in Climate Change Adaptation Policy for Public Health

Abstract

Korea’s Climate Change and Health Forum: the Role of Scientific Experts in Climate Change Adaptation Policy for Public HealthAbstract Number:2326 Jae-Yeon Jang*, Hyun-Jin Han, Hyung-Nam Myung, Soo-Nam Jo, and Kyung-Eun Lee Jae-Yeon Jang* Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University, Korea, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , Hyun-Jin Han Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University, Korea, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , Hyung-Nam Myung Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University, Korea, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , Soo-Nam Jo Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Korea, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author , and Kyung-Eun Lee Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Ajou University, Korea, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author AbstractBackground & Aims Recent studies have scrutinized the impact that scientific knowledge or communities of experts have on policy making; this impact is even greater when uncertainty is concerned. The Climate Change and Health Forum in Korea, a public-private-academic partnership established in 2008, has assumed a significant role in climate change health issues in the national policy arena. This study analyzes the forum and its policy processes. Method We examined the forum’s history and activities, analyzing its 244 members’ breadth of expertise. We reviewed 169 speeches presented over five years. Finally, we reviewed the forum’s dynamics of policy process through a literature review and a statistical analysis of its media exposure.Results The forum comprises experts from the followings fields: health or medicine (56.1%), social sciences (20.5%), natural science (16.0%), engineering (4.9%), and other (2.5%). The speeches mainly addressed the health impacts of climate change and their countermeasures (70.4%). The health issues were subcategorized into vector-borne (37.0%), airborne (4.2%), or waterborne (5.0%) diseases; heat and cold waves (33.6%); meteorological disasters (13.4%); and general health issues (6.7%). The forum is involved in knowledge exchange, program consulting, education, advocacy, nurturing next-generation scientists, and outsourcing policy implementation. Furthermore, it has made significant contributions to policy processes in Korea.Conclusion The forum holds a distinguished position in policy making and is unique in five aspects: (1) the spontaneity of the private sector, (2) multi-disciplined episteme, (3) multi-function and the role of training, (4) knowledge-outsourcing role in policy making, and (5) the role of discourse formation and agenda setting of policy.