Vijay S. Limaye (
Wendy Max is a professor of health economics in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California San Francisco, in San Francisco, California.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2020 Dec;39(12):2098-2104. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01109.
National and international assessments have drawn attention to the substantial economic risks of climate change. The costs of climate-sensitive health outcomes responsive to meteorological or seasonal patterns are among the least studied of those risks. In this article we describe how cost valuation analyses that relate climate-sensitive health outcomes to damages in economic terms can illuminate the costs of inaction on the climate crisis and the economic savings of addressing this problem. We identify major challenges to expanding the application of climate-health valuation research and suggest solutions to overcome these obstacles to better characterize the burden of climate-sensitive health outcomes and health disparities. The projected health and economic harms of climate-sensitive risks could be enormous if climate change continues to accelerate and communities are not prepared to reduce or prevent their impact. Expanded valuation of climate-sensitive health outcomes can inform policies that slow climate change and promote stronger investments in health-protective climate change adaptation efforts.
国家和国际评估都已经注意到气候变化带来的巨大经济风险。在这些风险中，受气象或季节性模式影响的气候敏感健康结果的成本是研究最少的。在本文中，我们描述了如何通过将气候敏感健康结果与经济损失联系起来的成本评估分析，来阐明对气候危机无所作为的代价，以及解决这个问题的经济节约。我们确定了扩大气候健康估值研究应用的主要挑战，并提出了解决这些障碍的办法，以更好地描述气候敏感健康结果和健康差异的负担。如果气候变化继续加速，而社区没有准备好减轻或预防其影响，那么与气候敏感风险相关的预计健康和经济危害可能是巨大的。扩大对气候敏感健康结果的评估可以为减缓气候变化和促进对保护健康的气候变化适应工作的更有力投资提供信息。
