8.D. Round table: Towards harmonised heat-health metrics and effective responses to heat in Europe

Abstract

 

Despite the considerable impacts of heat on health and the growing risks thereof under the changing climate, there is no harmonised surveillance of heat mortality and morbidity across Europe. According to the 2024 report by the European Environment Agency in collaboration with the International Association of National Public Health Institutes, just over half of the European countries have established surveillance of heat impacts on health. The geographical and temporal dimensions of those surveillance systems, as well as demographic and epidemiological data recorded, vary among the countries. This panel discussion, organised by the European Climate and Health Observatory, aims to explore whether and how the diverse methods used in surveillance of heat impacts on health could be harmonised across Europe; and how to ensure effective responses to those impacts. The national public health institutes (NPHIs) play a key role in heat mortality and morbidity monitoring as well as development and operationalisation of responses, such as heat-health action plans, hence they take a central stage in this workshop. The recently developed Austrian heat indicator framework will be presented by the Competence Centre Climate and Health at the Austrian NPHI. The IANPHI's climate change and health thematic committee chaired by Sante Publique France will share the findings of the 2024 global survey on heat mortality/morbidity monitoring and discuss their experiences of knowledge sharing on surveillance methods among the NPHIs in Europe and beyond. The Danish Statens Serum Institute, hosting the European mortality monitoring activity, will discuss the potential of utilising the weekly mortality data reported by the EuroMOMO member countries to set up a consistent and standardised approach to monitoring heat-related health impacts in European countries, complementing existing national efforts. Representing the scientific community, Joan Ballester from ISGlobal will share lessons learnt from estimating heat-related mortality across Europe, and development of a tool prognosing regional heat-related mortality based on population characteristics and weather forecasts at a pan-European scale. Finally, the WHO Regional Office for Europe will discuss the importance of heat mortality and morbidity monitoring in the context of the ongoing development of the updated heat-health action planning guidance. They will also highlight which aspects of heat-health action planning should be boosted in Europe in order to protect human health more effectively from high temperatures. The discussion with the audience will be the key part of the session and will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of harmonising systems of heat mortality and morbidity surveillance across Europe; on sharing experiences of heat health impacts monitoring and estimation among NPHIs and between researchers and public health practitioners; and discussing what makes for an effective heat health action plan.

Key messages

• Increased awareness of the necessity of monitoring heat mortality and mortality to understand and prevent the impacts of heat, and of the diverse approaches to monitoring in place across Europe.

• Deepened understanding on the advantages and disadvantages of harmonised heat-health impacts surveillance and responses, contributing to development of such a system in Europe

Speakers/Panellists

Sébastien Denys

Santé Publique France, St Maurice, France

Lasse Vestergaard

Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

Andrea Schmidt

Austrian Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria

Joan Ballester

Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain

Mareike Kroll

WHO/Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, Bonn, Germany