Q&A: Climate change's challenge for our health system

"Decarbonisation is essential to reduce potential health impacts," says ESR's Dr Annette Bolton. Photo / File

Climate change isn't just a threat to our coastal communities: it's also a threat to our health. After publishing a report into the ways a warming world could cause a healthcare headache, ESR scientists are now working with Government officials on a major adaptation strategy. Herald science reporter Jamie Morton asked the report's author, ESR's Dr Annette Bolton, about how New Zealand's health system should be preparing itself for the goliath problem of climate change.

We've seen a few major reports over the past couple of years about what climate change will mean for our health – notably one published by the Royal Society last year. What's new in this one?

The main focus of this report is environmental health - the relationship between the state of the environment and human health, where environmental changes may lead to beneficial or harmful outcomes for people.

One of the main differences is the exploration of potential adaptation strategies that are based on New Zealand and international literature and any gaps in knowledge that are of particular importance to New Zealand.

How wide-ranging will the impact on our health be, and why? Is there the risk of undoing gains we've made in healthcare over the past century?

One way to look at the health impacts is to think of climate change as a risk multiplier.

Environmental health risks have been present in New Zealand long before climate change was identified as a threat to our health.

Overall, the [scientific] literature suggests that climate change could make some environmental health issues worse.

The severity of those impacts will depend how much heat-trapping gas continues to be emitted and how prepared the Government, public and the health sector are in terms of management of projected impacts: or adaptation and resilience.

There are also risks that are not yet apparent - like vector-borne disease, or those carried by animals and insects - and those unknown to us.

In terms of undoing the gains we have made, that's bigger-picture stuff that we will need to think about.

People think of climate change and they picture rising seas, drought, storms and melting ice. Do you think the health aspect of the threat is often overlooked?

The health sector is very aware of this threat.

Avoiding the worst of these potential impacts obviously means decarbonising and hitting the Paris Agreement. What are the health benefits that come with making the transition to a low-carbon economy and what benefits could these bring?

Decarbonisation is essential to reduce potential health impacts.

The main health benefits include improving our environment: cleaner local air and water quality, less noise.

In terms of transport, easier mobility and promotion of more active transport, improvements to housing and more liveable cities that promote walking, wellbeing and social inclusion.

Assuming that New Zealand will have to deal with many of climate change's impacts, how can we prepare our health system to make it more resilient? Will we need more resourcing to deal with emerging threats like infectious diseases and those spread by new parasites?

We have systems including surveillance, biosecurity, monitoring, forecasting - that's everyday work that is protecting our citizens.

In terms of future work, we need to keep our eye on emerging threats, and make sure that we have the systems in place to deal with them.

If there's one easy take-home message out of this, what is it?

To use the old proverb: "prevention is better than cure".