Paying lip service to health: An analysis of health in climate change mitigation policies in Spain

Abstract

• Spanish mitigation policies do not present climate change as a health issue. • The engagement with health co-benefits is largely limited to air pollution. • There is a discrepancy between the ambition to engage with health and its inclusion. • The representation of health could negatively impact the support and uptake of these policies. A significant body of research points to the serious health dimensions of climate change. Yet, research suggests that the health agenda has so far had a limited role in global climate change policy. This study sets out to examine if and how health is represented in climate change mitigation policies in Spain. Through an interpretive discourse analysis following the ‘What's the Problem Represented to be’ framework, I examine whether climate change is represented to be a health ‘problem’ in key national policy documents and explore the meanings that stakeholders assign to climate change and health in Spain. This analysis suggests that climate change is hardly represented to be a health ‘problem’ in Spanish climate change mitigation policies. Instead, climate change mitigation is represented to be an economic and labour market problem. Health is relegated to the climate adaptation agenda. In turn, the representation of health is limited to quantitative gains led by air pollution reduction associated with the implementation of policies. This finding is consistent with literature in the health and climate change field. This study identifies a discrepancy between key stakeholders’ ambitions to make health an overarching priority and its limited consideration in policy documents. This article concludes that the policies pay lip service to health. The importance of health is acknowledged but the measures proposed in the policies are neither driven by nor target health goals. A discrepancy between the ambition to prioritise health and its limited consideration in policy is observed. Further research on the representation of health in climate policy elsewhere would supplement these findings.