Climate change is recognized as one of the major challenges in environmental health and as a major threat to public health. Its impacts are already evident in France and around the world: an increase in extreme weather events, the emergence and severity of certain infectious diseases… In this context, climate change is one of the priority areas of the Agency’s programming, whose mission is to better understand these health impacts and reduce them. As part of the roadmap adopted at COP 26, Santé publique France and Ianphi are organizing an event on April 8 to promote greater consideration of the links between climate, biodiversity, and health in public policy, and to encourage concrete actions at the local, national, and European levels.

Working Together to Address This Global Challenge

Because it alters a large number of fundamental determinants of health, climate change is identified as one of the greatest risks to public health worldwide. In this context, the challenges revolve around two main areas: monitoring changes in health risks and supporting mitigation and adaptation strategies to better understand these health impacts and reduce them.

The effects of climate change result in an increase in extreme weather events, which in turn affect our health. Available data suggest that climate disruption leads to greater health risks. Santé publique France has thus demonstrated the impact of rising temperatures on mortality. Exposure to extreme temperatures also results in increased mortality among the most vulnerable and socially disadvantaged populations. On a broader scale, it is also important to consider the links between climate change and biodiversity loss, which also have health consequences directly linked to the environment. The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic illustrates how, in this context of climate change, the interaction between infectious agents, hosts, and the environment lies at the heart of infectious disease outbreaks.

To protect the health of current and future generations, it is therefore necessary to adapt to a new climate, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving biodiversity.

Santé publique France’s Work in the Fight Against Climate Change

Since 2003, the agency has been committed to building knowledge, raising awareness, and providing information on the links between climate change and health through studies at the local and national levels, as well as European and international collaborations. Tools are being developed to support adaptation, ecological transition, and mitigation policies by illustrating the severity of climate change’s effects and highlighting the health co-benefits of these policies.

The Agency works in close collaboration with other stakeholders particularly involved in research, expertise, and prevention regarding climate change, as well as in the implementation of public policies supporting mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Under framework agreements with ADEME and Météo-France, the Agency thus integrates public health concerns into a continuum of public actions and knowledge mobilization aimed at combating the effects of climate change.

Indicators to promote the integration of public health into climate change adaptation policies

The health impacts of climate change span all areas of public health. Yet they are still largely overlooked in climate change adaptation policies. Santé publique France has explored the development of indicators for risk, exposure, vulnerability, impact, and intervention that would be useful to professionals in the fields of the environment, urban planning, and public health, with the aim of encouraging collaboration among them and, ultimately, contributing to the integration of health into all policies.

Learn more:

• Which indicators can help ensure public health is taken into account in climate change adaptation policies?

Climate Change and Heat Waves

Climate change is leading to increasingly frequent and widespread heat waves. The health impacts require rapid prevention and fundamental interventions to make cities more resilient to heat: greening of buildings, selection of appropriate construction materials, reduction of land sealing by promoting soil porosity and restoring space for water...
Santé publique France and the Institut Paris Région studied the influence of certain urban characteristics conducive to the formation of heat islands on the relationship between temperature and mortality. The results of this study, published in 2020, show that the risk of heat-related mortality is lower in municipalities with more vegetation, trees, and less artificialized land.

Learn more:

• Adapting cities to heat: a necessity to reduce the health impact of extreme heat

• The influence of urban characteristics on the relationship between temperature and mortality in Île-de-France

• Infographic - Living Better with Heat in the City

In addition, Santé publique France contributes to the monitoring and prevention of extreme heat waves, in collaboration with Météo-France and the Ministry of Health. Each year, as part of seasonal monitoring and during heatwave episodes, Santé publique France produces national and regional summaries related to weather and health conditions, and uses various communication tools to remind the public of simple steps to take to mitigate the health impacts of extreme heat.

Learn more:

• Heat and Health Report

Climate Change and Public Health Disasters

Climate change is altering the characteristics of extreme weather events, making them, for example, more frequent, more intense, or affecting new areas. For instance, the wind speeds observed during Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which contributed to their destructive potential, are attributable to climate change.

Santé publique France monitors and assesses risks following extreme weather events and contributes to the immediate response through the public health reserve.

Learn more:

• Hurricane Irma: The health reserve deployed to Guadeloupe

Climate Change and Health Determinants

Santé publique France works on health determinants that can be directly and positively influenced by policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in relation to air pollution, nutrition, and physical activity. Climate policies can be associated with significant health co-benefits when they help improve these determinants.

Learn more:

• air pollution report

• nutrition and physical activity report

Climate Change and Vector-Borne Diseases

Climate change, combined with globalization, urbanization, and deforestation, contributes to the increased transmission of vector-borne diseases, particularly those transmitted by the Aedes albopictus mosquito, also known as the tiger mosquito. The Aedes albopictus mosquito, also known as the tiger mosquito, has been spreading across Europe and France for several years. It can transmit the dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses.

Each year, from November to May, thanks to the surveillance system in place, Santé publique France publishes the number of cases of Chikungunya, dengue, and Zika detected in mainland France.

Learn more:

• Chikungunya report

• Dengue fact sheet

• Zika fact sheet

See also:

• Dengue and chikungunya outbreaks in mainland France, 2010–2018

• First vector-borne transmission of Zika virus in Europe: seroprevalence survey to assess the extent of the outbreak in the Var in November 2019

• Vector-borne transmission of Zika virus in Europe, southern France, August 2019

• Chikungunya, dengue, Zika - 2021 surveillance results