Motivators and barriers to incorporating climate change-related health risks in environmental health impact assessment

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted in Queensland, Australia, which explores various stakeholders’ views on the capacity of the Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) to incorporate climate change. With health hazards relating to contamination, planning activities and policy having been included in prior use of EHIA, the authors conclude that flexibility exists to incorporate a variety of issues. Yet its capacity to deal with the complexity of climate change remains largely unknown. Given the considerable risk to health and environment climate change models predict, it is necessary to address this issue in order to aid decision-makers and future policy formulation.

The study consisted of two focus group sessions to examine the views of government, academic and private-sector stakeholders on the current EHIA framework and its potential to incorporate climate change related health risks. Questions were conceived a priori, focusing on identifying framework attributes that support the assessment of climate change related health risks, or else require further development. Also explored was the development of an environmental and health information system, to aid evidence-based decision making.

Here is a selection of findings from the focus group study.

• There was general agreement that current EHIA methods could incorporate health consequences of climate change.
• The scope of the assessment and the selection of suitable health indicators are considered key aspects to such incorporation.
• The assessment of positive health impacts is often neglected.
• Stakeholder participation is vital to the assessment process and is an area that is often mishandled through a lack of communication.
• Problems regarding access, availability and sustainability of data are identified as barriers to the concept of an environment and health information system.