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The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda

A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite...

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Autores principales: Workman, Annabelle, Blashki, Grant, Bowen, Kathryn J., Karoly, David J., Wiseman, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5923716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29617317
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040674
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author Workman, Annabelle
Blashki, Grant
Bowen, Kathryn J.
Karoly, David J.
Wiseman, John
author_facet Workman, Annabelle
Blashki, Grant
Bowen, Kathryn J.
Karoly, David J.
Wiseman, John
author_sort Workman, Annabelle
collection PubMed
description A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate change, the science–policy interface and power in policy-making, to identify additional barriers to the meaningful incorporation of health co-benefits into climate change mitigation policy development. Specifically, we identify four key interrelated areas where barriers may exist in relation to health co-benefits: discourse, efficiency, vested interests and structural challenges. With these insights in mind, we argue that the current politico-economic paradigm in which climate change is situated and the processes used to develop climate change mitigation policies do not adequately support accounting for health co-benefits. We present approaches for enhancing the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies to ensure that health is embedded in the broader climate change agenda.
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spelling pubmed-59237162018-05-03 The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda Workman, Annabelle Blashki, Grant Bowen, Kathryn J. Karoly, David J. Wiseman, John Int J Environ Res Public Health Article A complex, whole-of-economy issue such as climate change demands an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral response. However, evidence suggests that human health has remained elusive in its influence on the development of ambitious climate change mitigation policies for many national governments, despite a recognition that the combustion of fossil fuels results in pervasive short- and long-term health consequences. We use insights from literature on the political economy of health and climate change, the science–policy interface and power in policy-making, to identify additional barriers to the meaningful incorporation of health co-benefits into climate change mitigation policy development. Specifically, we identify four key interrelated areas where barriers may exist in relation to health co-benefits: discourse, efficiency, vested interests and structural challenges. With these insights in mind, we argue that the current politico-economic paradigm in which climate change is situated and the processes used to develop climate change mitigation policies do not adequately support accounting for health co-benefits. We present approaches for enhancing the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies to ensure that health is embedded in the broader climate change agenda. MDPI 2018-04-04 2018-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5923716/ /pubmed/29617317 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040674 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Workman, Annabelle
Blashki, Grant
Bowen, Kathryn J.
Karoly, David J.
Wiseman, John
The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title_full The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title_fullStr The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title_full_unstemmed The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title_short The Political Economy of Health Co-Benefits: Embedding Health in the Climate Change Agenda
title_sort political economy of health co-benefits: embedding health in the climate change agenda
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5923716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29617317
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040674
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