MITECO presents climate change adaptation actions to deal with heat waves in Spain

The Secretary of State for the Environment of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Hugo Morán, presented this morning the latest actions developed in Spain in terms of adaptation to climate change to deal with heat waves and reduce the risk to human health.
 

The presentation took place within the framework of an informative breakfast organised by the LIFE Shara project, a joint initiative of the Spanish Office for Climate Change, the Biodiversity Foundation, the National Centre for Environmental Education, dependent on the OAPN, the State Meteorological Agency and the Portuguese Environment Agency, to promote awareness and knowledge on adaptation to climate change by strengthening and promoting the National Plan for Adaptation to Change Climatic.
 

Spain, due to its geographical location and socio-economic characteristics, is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The impacts of climate change that are already occurring today are expected to worsen in the future as the climate crisis continues to advance. These impacts will exist even if we make the greatest efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
 

In this regard, the Secretary of State said that “we must continue to work on ambitious and effective adaptation policies, with an effort of coordination and coherence between the different levels of administration, which contribute to reducing risks to human health”.
The informative breakfast was attended by two renowned researchers in the field of health, high temperatures and climate change, who presented the main results of their latest studies.

On the one hand, Ana María Vicedo, an environmental epidemiologist expert in climate change and health at the University of Bern, has shared the results of her studies on attribution to climate change and the effect of environmental temperature and other stressors on human health. Their latest research concludes that more than a third of heat deaths are attributed to global warming.

 

Julio Díaz, director of the Reference Unit on Climate Change, Environment and Health of the National School of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute, has presented, for his part, the results of his latest study that determines the temporal evolution of the minimum mortality temperature in the 52 Spanish provinces and evaluates whether the rate of adaptation to heat is sufficient to compensate for the increase in temperatures in a scenario of unfavorable emissions.

Climate change affects the health of the Spanish population through direct effects such as heat waves and extreme events – floods and droughts – but also through indirect effects, such as increased air pollution, changes in the distribution of disease-transmitting vectors or loss of water or food quality. among others.

 

For this reason, the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030 considers human health as one of its 18 priority areas of work, with a specific line of action to address the impacts related to excessive temperatures.

HIGH TEMPERATURES AND THEIR IMPACTS ON HEALTH
Among the impacts on human health that have the greatest impact in Spain is the increase in morbidity and mortality associated with extreme temperatures. Numerous epidemiological studies show a significant increase in mortality above a certain thermal threshold, and it has been shown that extremely high temperatures have a direct impact on mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

As a result of climate change, heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense, and affect the most vulnerable population groups to a greater extent, such as the over-65s, children, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases, exposed workers and people at risk of exclusion.

However, deaths associated with heat waves in Spain have fallen from 14 to 1% in a decade – to around 1,300 deaths per year – thanks to the prevention plans put in place, the change in habits and improvements in infrastructure.

After the heat wave recorded in the summer of 2003, the National Plan for Preventive Actions against the Effects of Excessive Temperatures on Health was launched, which, since 2004, has been activated every summer, between the months of June and September. The Plan establishes the actions necessary for the detection and control of risk situations, for which several levels of action are defined, and deadlines for their application.

Part of its success is based on good coordination between meteorological, health and social services and civil protection authorities, as well as a solvent scientific base, through the identification of temperature thresholds that trigger heat mortality in different areas of Spain.

Considering climate change projections, despite the decrease in mortality due to the implementation of adaptation policies, heat-attributable deaths could reach 12,000 per year throughout Spain by 2100, due to rising temperatures.