The Effects of Interventions Designed to Build Low-carbon and Climate-resilient Health Systems

Introduction

Climate change poses a critical global challenge, disproportionately affecting countries that have contributed least to its acceleration. Vulnerable populations, including indigenous groups, those living in poverty, high-risk areas, or with complex health needs, are particularly impacted. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that an additional 250,000 deaths will be attributed to climate change per year between 2030-2050. Health systems are dual actors in this crisis: while essential for managing increased disease burdens, these systems also significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), where the emissions intensity is higher. There is a pressing need to transform health systems into low-carbon, climate-resilient entities to ensure future health and wellbeing.

Transforming existing systems into low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems is essential for ensuring the health and wellbeing of future generations. However, while there is guidance on the types of approaches that health systems should adopt to fulfil this goal, there is limited evidence on the feasibility of implementation and effectiveness of these approaches in practice, particularly across diverse contexts. Further, the evidence landscape is wide and fragmented.

In collaboration with Queen Margaret University and the Research Centre for Carbon Studies, HERD International will conduct a rapid review of interventions which directly impact the climate resilience of health systems and their capacities to become low carbon. The aim of this rapid review is to document what interventions have been implemented to build low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems in LMICs and document their effectiveness, with due reflection on the effects of diverse contextual factors.

Objectives

This rapid review aims to develop a typology of interventions designed to build low-carbon and more climate-resilient health systems in LMICs. It also aims to identify how addressing air, water and soil quality have been integrated into interventions for more low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems in LMICs. This review will assess the effects of interventions to build low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems in LMICs, and enhance stakeholders’ understanding of how these specific interventions, their implementation, and the prevailing contexts or behaviors affect the promotion of low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems.

Approach

The review will focus on the following key research questions:

1. What interventions have been implemented in LMICs to develop low-carbon and/or climate-resilient health systems and what are their mechanisms of action and intended targets?
2. How effective are interventions designed to build low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems in LMICs?
3. What factors (intervention design, implementation, the context, or population) influence the effectiveness and outcomes of interventions designed to build low-carbon and climate-resilient health systems in LMICs?

Individual reviewers will be tasked with extracting relevant data from studies that pass the selection process and eligibility criteria for this review. Upon completion of all data extraction, reviewers will produce an analysis of trends identified from the selected studies using charts, maps, and infographics. Reviewers will also classify the types of interventions identified across studies and compare them against the WHO framework on low-carbon and climate resilient health systems.