Adaptation solutions to reduce climate change impact on health in the Mountain area

In the face of climate change, events like COVID-19 crisis with high impact in specific sectors demonstrated the importance of resilient societies.

As such, it is vital to act with a level of urgency for climate change related impacts to health sector that are proportionate to the scale of the threat, be prepared and informed on the basis of the best-available science, and practise clear and consistent communications to all those involved.

Therefore, in MOUNTADAPT, various regional and local authorities and community members will take the leadership to co-design, co-develop and test eleven state of the art climate adaptation solutions across the mountains biogeographical region, in Austria, Slovenia, France and Romania.

A diversity of actors of the health system will also collaborate throughout the project to demonstrate the replicability of the solutions in a diversity of settings: within the Alpine mountains in Romania, outside Europe in the Pyrenees in Andora and beyond, in the continental area in Germany. MOUNTADAPT will develop robust models to better understand the impact of climate change on health (PR1).

The project will cover the whole chain of response to a climate induced health emergency with monitoring tools (PR2) that will be directly linked to short term forecasts to communicate warnings (PR3) to the relevant stakeholders. An emergency management tool (PR4) will finally support health systems to optimally organise staff in crisis time.

This will be supported by guidance for transforming the health system (PR5) and empowered actors with the training courses for healthcare professionals and awareness raising campaigns for citizens (PR6).

Detailed monitoring protocols and impact assessment frameworks (PR7) will allow for a continuous evaluation of a range of adaptation solutions during and after the project, providing incentive for their implementation.

Finally, MOUNTADAPT will provide a full guide (PR8) for the implementation of its adaptation solutions, boosting their replication in new territories and will provide feedback to the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority.