Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Climate change is this century's greatest threat to human health. Without deep and immediate emission cuts, we will pass safe warming levels, and see increased levels of air pollution. Air pollution is currently the greatest environmental threat to human health, resulting in over 4 millions early deaths each year. Air pollution harms the health and wellbeing of Canadians at an annual cost of $120 billion. Policymakers can take steps to mitigate climate change (to reduce climate-related risks) and enable adaptation (to reduce the effects of those risks). Health Canada recently identified two critical gaps: (1) “understanding of how various climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies can affect health and health inequities” and (2) "economic costs of the impacts of climate variability and projected climate change on human health in Canada". The Tier 2 Chair in Global Change, Atmosphere, and Health seeks to provide decision makers with new modelling tools and data needed to understand the effect of strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change on human health and health inequity. It will address the roles of climate change and climate variability to identify specific strategies (e.g., carbon pricing, improving building codes) to robustly and equitably protect Canadians from air pollution and associated risks, like extreme temperature. Objectives include: (1) Evaluating interactions of mitigation and adaptation on health impacts of air pollution under climate change (2) Identifying policy implications for health protection to multiple health hazards (heat, wildfires, air pollution) (3) Recommending new air quality adaptation policy to reduce short and long-term risks To achieve this, HQP will develop novel integrated modelling approaches to evaluate technologies, designs, behaviors, and policies related to adaptation to air pollution. They will build on the Integrated Climate and Air Impacts Research (ICAIR) lab expertise in estimating the effects of climate change and climate policy on emissions, the climate, air pollution, human health, and the economy. To this expertise, they will add a unique, world-leading capacity to evaluate adaptation and adaptation policy, and its potential for equitably protecting health from air pollution under climate change. ICAIR HQP will gain skills to address gaps in Canadian capacity for integrated policy benefits.