The Climate and Health Alliance works extensively on policy and advocacy at a national, state and global level to promote pathways to positive health and climate outcomes.
Healthy, Regenerative and Just. That’s our vision.
For a decade, the Climate and Health Alliance has coordinated a health sector-led campaign, calling on governments to implement a national strategy on climate, health and wellbeing for Australia.
In 2021, Climate and Health Alliance released Healthy, Regenerative and Just: A framework for a national strategy on climate, health and wellbeing.
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This is the critical decade for action
CAHA's 2021 framework has been guided by our first framework, released in 2017, and the futures work we completed in 2020, to reimagine the world we want.
In 2020, Climate and Health Alliance brought together 100+ thought leaders to discuss possible alternative futures for Australia in 2030.
Guided by futures experts, and drawing on the expertise of the thought leaders, four narratives seek to answer this question.
What will Australia look like in a decade if:
- there is no change;
- marginal change;
- maladaptive change; or,
- radical transformative change?
Two publications emerged:
- Australia in 2030 - Possible alternative futures
- Healthy, Regenerative and Just - Our vision for a better future
Australia in 2030: Possible alternative scenarios
Released in February 2021, the Australia in 2030 scenarios aim to help decision makers and the wider community better understand the consequences associated with different policy choices, and to build consensus around a shared vision for a healthy, regenerative and just future for all.
The resulting scenarios (Head in the Sand, Short Memory, Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, We Can Do This, and Our Island Home) describe the future we might expect from a range of different pathways.
The elements of a preferred integrated scenario were also surfaced during a process of 'backcasting', i.e. how do we get to our preferred future? This informed the development of the Healthy, Regenerative and Just policy agenda as the roadmap to the preferred future.
The development of each of the scenarios considered the different social, technological, ethical, environmental, legal, ethical, and governance issues that might arise, and each scenario is accompanied by two case studies which describe the life of someone living in that scenario in 2030.
Healthy, Regenerative and Just: Our vision for a better future
Released in November 2020, the Healthy, Regenerative and Just policy agenda outlines the pathway, and the policies, we need, to get to the future we choose. A healthy, regenerative and just future is available to us. It is scientifically, economically, culturally, socially, and technologically feasible.
Some of the insights from our engagement in futures thinking remind us that:
- the future will likely be different in many respects from the present;
- the future is not fixed, but consists of a variety of alternatives;
- people (i.e. us) are responsible for choosing between those alternatives; and
- the policies, strategies and actions we choose can help us realise the futures we consider desirable and prevent those we consider undesirable.
Climate and Health Alliance urges decision-makers, fellow collaborators, policymakers, business leaders, civil society, influencers, academics, and the community to use the Australia in 2030 scenarios to provoke discussion, support conversations and dialogue, and to use the Healthy, Regenerative and Just policy agenda to guide policy and planning for the future.
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Where we've come from
CAHA released the Framework for a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Well-Being for Australia first in 2017, following a year-long national consultation and collaboration with 30+ health and medical groups.
The 2017 framework has been the benchmark for climate and health policy in Australia and has influenced the development of policy:
- It inspired the 2018 Queensland Health and Wellbeing Climate Adaptation Plan
- It has influenced the inclusion of climate change as a priority area in the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019-23, and informed the guidance for Victorian local governments in Victoria to recognise climate change in their public health and wellbeing plans
- It influenced the recommendations in the Climate Health WA Inquiry
- It is informing the development of the next Healthy Tasmania Five Year Strategic plan, which is in development and will include climate change and health as a key focus
- It has led to most Australian medical colleges supporting a call for a national climate and health plan
- It influenced policy recommendations in climate change and health literature on climate change and health, with a national climate and health plan now a standard recommendation in MJA-Lancet Countdown annual policy briefs
- It has influenced the US Medical Consortium on Climate Change and Health in developing a policy framework to guide government
- It has informed the advocacy of our international partner Health Care Without Harm in calling for a national climate and health plans in all countries as part of their global strategy
- CAHA is currently working with nine local governments in Western Sydney to apply the framework to support stakeholders to include climate-health considerations in their policies and action plans
The 2017 framework was informed by:
- Discussion Paper: Towards a national strategy on climate, health and well-being for Australia
- Preliminary Report: Survey of health professionals' opinions around a national strategy on climate, health and well-being for Australia
- Final Consultation Report: National consultation regarding a national strategy on climate, health and well-being for Australia