Abstract
Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and projected climate-sensitive hazards. Using the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) Coalition on Climate Change and Public Health workgroup and the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) program as examples, this paper describes the important role of scientist–public health stakeholder collaboratives in addressing the public health impacts of climate-sensitive hazards. Using the MCDPH and CLIMAS stakeholder groups, stakeholder connections were mapped to show relationships between the organization types and connections between scientists and public health stakeholders. Stakeholders, defined as meeting attendees, were primarily individuals from academic institutions (n = 175), government agencies (n = 114), non-profits (n = 90), and health departments (n = 85). Engaging public health stakeholders in transdisciplinary regional climate initiatives and addressing gaps in their networks helped these programs to develop more collaborative projects over time.
Highlights
Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and future climate-sensitive hazards [1,2]
The Coalition on Climate Change and Public Health (CCCPH) workgroup has continued to have an annual meeting since inception; the 2018 meeting included 74 new stakeholders (76% of meeting attendees) who were not previously involved in the workgroup
Analyzing and addressing gaps in their stakeholder networks helped each group develop more transdisciplinary work over time which is evident in the utilization of stakeholder feedback and the additional grant funding that was received to continue the CCCPH work
Summary
Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and future climate-sensitive hazards [1,2]. Climate-sensitive hazards are environmental events that pose risks to human health and could be affected by long-term changes in temperature, precipitation, and other weather conditions. These events occur at a wide range of time scales, spanning short-term events like dust storms to long-term events like drought. Responding to human health impacts requires a large, diverse network of stakeholders, including experts, local non-profits and businesses, government agencies, and tribal groups. These adaptation efforts cannot persist in silos; we must come together in order to see dramatic shifts in reducing impacts on human health [8].
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