Information from Governance Regulation reporting on adaptation (2023)

The public health response of Cyprus to heat waves is based on forecasting heat waves, issuing warnings and providing advice for self-protection from heat waves through the mass media (television, radio, newspapers, public websites). In addition, during severe heat waves the government, in order to protect its citizens from adverse health effects, recommends a curfew between the high-risk hours of the day.

Adaptation priorities include improving health care structures (infrastructure and organisation) and existing building stock as well as through increasing the green and blue infrastructure.

Based on the latest national adaptation strategy progress report, the cost of implementation for the current adaptation measures and their timeline for the health sector is 0.2 million euros. Out of a total of nine actions for this sector, five are already at the implementation stage and four are short-term actions.

The cooperation on adaptation actions is also achieved through a number of bilateral and multilateral projects, for example the health project LIFE Medea.

A Task Force with a scientific focus on health collected existing knowledge in order to assess the situation, identify gaps in research and policy needs and provide a “toolkit” of possible actions to address the climate challenges in the region as part of the Cyprus Government’s Initiative for Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME). EMME aims at the development of a Regional Action Plan to address the specific needs and challenges countries are facing in the region, to address and ameliorate the impact of climate change and advance mitigation actions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Information from EEA report. Climate change and health: the national policy overview in Europe (2022)

National policies on climate change adaptation and national health strategies were analysed to identify the coverage of climate-related impacts on health (physical, mental, and social) and the types of interventions addressing them. The report provides a European overview, while the geographical coverage of various aspects of national policies across Europe can be visualized using the map viewer. The results for Cyprus are summarised here.

Policy documents reviewed:

National response for preparation to climate change (2017)

Cyprus 7^th National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2018)

Aspects covered in the reviewed policy document:

Resources in the Observatory catalogue on Cyprus