National adaptation and health policy review 2022, Mar. 2022

This metadata refers to the dataset which provides EEA members and collaborating countries’ (EEA38) policies on climate change National Adaptation Strategies (NAS) and public National Health Strategies (NHSs), as the key policy areas through which climate change impacts on health can be addressed. The existing policies were analysed in 2022 to identify the coverage of various climate-related impacts on health (physical, mental, and social) and types of interventions addressing them (institutional, social and structural). The policy documents for review were obtained via Climate-ADAPT country profiles (https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/countries-regions/countries - which provide links to national adaptation policies for EEA32 member countries) through online search and via outreach to the EEA’s European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet), as well as health ministries of individual countries. The overview of the coverage of health impacts and policy measures in national policies across Europe is shown in table 1 in the ‘Climate change and health: the national policy overview in Europe’ document (accessible together with the data files). In total, 37 national adaptation strategies and 34 national health strategies were reviewed, as for some countries the policies were not available. Climate hazards in National Adaptation Strategies (NASs) and National Health Strategies (NHSs) were recorded if they were described in the policy document explicitly as a risk to human health. Measures and interventions were recorded if they were clearly described as actions tackling the impacts of climate change on health, or intended to increase resilience of the population, the institutions, or of health systems, facilities, and professionals to climate change impacts.