Cities, Climate Change, and Public Health

An examination of climate adaptation planning that situates people’s health and well-being front and center

This book examines how cities can use a public health frame of climate change to boost people's understanding of and concern about climate change and increase policy support for climate adaptation efforts at the local level. It also presents new tools for cities to enhance awareness of and facilitate prioritization of climate risk management choices.

To date, climate adaptation has mostly focused on protecting physical assets from potentially catastrophic climatic changes. While the lack of human vulnerability and equity components in adaptation plans and policies has been critiqued by many, this has not yet led to climate adaptation planning and policymaking processes that situates people’s health and well-being front and center.

This book examines how cities can use a public health frame of climate change to boost people’s understanding of and concern about climate change and increase policy support for climate adaptation efforts at the local level. In addition, it aims to strengthen our understanding of different tools cities can use to operationalize a focus on the health implications of climate change, enhance collective decision-making capacities, and, ultimately, build human resilience to climate change.