Adaptation is one of the approaches to prevent or reduce some of the effects caused by climate change, including health effects. To support ministries planning for climate change adaptation measures, WHO/Europe developed this economic analysis tool that helps estimating health costs and benefits. Target users are mainly health or environment managers and stakeholders in Member States in the WHO European Region. Since the tool requires different expertise, including economics, epidemiology, public health and health information, users should be prepared to seek information from several ministries and from public health and health care institutions. The tool helps in:
estimating the costs of health damage due to climate change associated with a business-as-usual scenario (i.e. no action) at national and subnational levels;
estimating the costs of health-relevant measures for climate change adaptation at national and subnational levels; and
comparing the cost of health damage averted with the cost of adaptation measures, in order to reach conclusions on value for money.
This tool is specific for climate change and allows the user to conduct relatively simple analyses. It consists of a document describing the methods step-by-step and a manual with an Excel spreadsheet, which is a visual aid for calculating costs. Depending on requirements and capacity, the user can choose how detailed the data should be, the level of disaggregation of inputs and outputs, and whether additional research should be undertaken.
Click "website" to the right to access the tool or directly download the user manual in PDF.