National Health and Climate Strategy - Consultation

Overview

The Australian Government is developing a National Health and Climate Strategy.

The strategy aims to protect the health and wellbeing of Australians from the effects of climate change. To do this, it is important for the Australian Government to:

• reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the health system
• make the health system more resilient to the impacts of climate change
• support communities to take action against the health effects of climate change.

The strategy will be in line with the Government’s policies to adapt to climate change, and will also consider the work that has already started.

More information about the strategy is available in the Consultation Paper.

Why we need a National Health and Climate Strategy

Climate change risks the health and wellbeing of Australians in different ways:

• through warmer temperatures that cause extreme weather happen more often, which makes it easier for diseases that come from food, water, or bugs to spread. This also puts our food and water supply at risk.
• through air pollution which makes respiratory conditions worse, including asthma and lung cancer.
• by affecting people’s mental health, their workplace environment and how they work.
• by impacting housing and living conditions and possibly forcing people to leave their homes and communities.
• by putting infrastructure at risk, such as roads, bridges, buildings, power lines, and water supply networks.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said it expects the Earth to get 1.5°C hotter in the early 2030s, when compared to pre-industrial temperatures. This will impact people’s health and our natural environment.

The Australian health system needs to be ready to respond to the impacts of climate change, and continue to provide quality health services to Australians.

This will mean cutting down greenhouse gas emissions caused by the health system and finding ways to handle climate change impacts that cannot be avoided.

Why your views matter

Getting different ideas and experiences from the community is important in developing the National Health and Climate Strategy.

You can provide feedback in two ways:

1. A short online survey which will take 10 to 15 minutes, or

2. Filling out a submission form here. Please send it to Health.Climate.Consultation@health.gov.au. in Word format.

Your Privacy

As part of making your submission, we will ask you to read and accept the Privacy Notice available here.

What happens next

The feedback received as part of this consultation process will contribute to the development of the National Health and Climate Strategy.