The Context Much is already being done to better understand the causes and long-term patterns of climate change and climate variability, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the development and use of cleaner technologies. However, it is now recognized that these mitigation efforts cannot prevent climate change and its impacts from occurring. People therefore need to know how climate change and variability can affect their health, what population groups are vulnerable, and how these new health risks can best be managed.
Climate change affects all ecosystems and social structures.
Health and social science research must add climate change as a new variable as well as explore new integrative methods. Top The Challenge Health Canada, as the federal agency responsible for safeguarding and promoting the physical, mental, and social health of Canadians, will lead a national effort to produce interdisciplinary knowledge and evidence upon which all levels of government and health stakeholders can collaboratively build effective Canadian public health policies which will help our country to successfully adapt to climate change. The challenge is to produce a Research Agenda that shows the priority research questions, method development, and capacity gaps. The Research Agenda is for the use of Research Funding Agencies in setting calls for proposals. We hope that you, as a science or policy researcher or analyst, will accept this invitation to participate in this initial meeting, and would be grateful for your suggestions on how the draft programme could be improved.