Country profiles
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Spain |
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The sources used to compile the health and adaptation information for country profiles vary across countries. For EU Member States, information is based on their official adaptation reporting: 2021 adaptation reporting under the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action (see EU Adaptation Reporting, Climate-ADAPT Country Profiles) and 2019 adaptation reporting under the EU Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism Regulation. These two reporting mechanisms are together referred to here as “EU official reporting on adaptation”. Note: The relevant information has been copied from the EU official reporting on adaptation (submitted until July 21, 2021), without further elaborating the contents of the text. Some information, valid at the time of reporting, may no longer be valid today. Any necessary additions to the text are clearly highlighted. In addition, information collated in the EEA’s analysis of Climate change and health: the national policy review in Europe (2021), the Adaptation preparedness scoreboard country fiches (2018) and the WHO study on Public health and climate change adaptation policies in the European Union (2018) are presented. Note: Some information, valid at the time of publication, may no longer be valid today. Any necessary additions to the text are clearly highlighted. Information sources for non-EU member countries of the EEA are more limited. |
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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 Spain are summarised here.
Policy documents reviewed:
National Plan for the adaptation to climate change 2021-2030
Strategic Plan for health and environment/ Plan Estratégico de Salud y Medioambiente 2022 – 2026
Aspects covered in the reviewed policy document:
Information from EU official reporting on adaptation. GovReg reporting (2021), MMR reporting (2019)
The National Adaptation Plan (PNACC 2021-2030) is the reference framework for the development of adaptation policies in Spain. With the aim of facilitating the integration of adaptation actions in the different fields of public and private management, the PNACC defines 18 areas of work, specifying objectives for each of them, including human health.
Several sectoral laws at national level have mainstreamed adaptation considerations in recent years. For example, the Law 33/2011, of October 4, on General Public Health.
Health is addressed in several efforts to integrate climate change adaptation into sectoral policies, plans and programs, such as the National Health and Environment Plan, and the Long-term decarbonisation strategy (2020), which has a chapter devoted to adaptation to climate change. It raises "the need to assume adaptation to climate change as a State policy, due to its profound implications for the economy and the country's natural capital, and with it, the basic conditions to ensure the health and well-being of people of this and successive generations". It presents adaptation measures in 10 thematic areas.
The National Plan of Preventive Actions on the Effects of Excessive Temperatures on Health (implemented since 2004, and activated every summer, between the months of June and September [editors]) aims to prevent the negative effects that excess heat has on the health of citizens, especially among the most vulnerable groups. It establishes measures to reduce the effects associated with excess temperatures and to coordinate the State Administration institutions involved. It also proposes prevention and control actions to be carried out by the Autonomous and Local Administrations, and the collection of predictive information on temperature and the daily evolution of mortality, establishing criteria that allow active monitoring of risks and the identification of warning signs.
A sectoral assessment of the impacts of climate change on health was performed in 2014 and a set of indicators for health and climate change were published in 2016.
Adaptation and health protection in the face of climate change, a health-related project carried out under the framework of the PNACC, has produced a catalogue of experiences and good practices in public administrations and companies (CCOO-ISTAS, 2019).
In 2021, a new report about “Impacts and Risks associated to Climate Change in Spain” was published, describing the main impacts of climate change on the different productive sectors and natural systems in Spain. A list is also compiled of the main risks derived from these impacts, as well as a proposed assessment of the degree of urgency to address them. To this end, published documentation is analysed in a total of 10 areas of work or sectors and natural systems considered priority subjects in the PNACC (including health). It synthesises information on climate change impacts for each area of work and elaborates on the interrelationship of risks between different areas.
The main objective of LIFE URBAN KLIMA 2050 is to contribute to the full implementation of the KLIMA Strategy 2050 in the Basque Country in Spain, whose fulfillment is based on the execution of 9 goals and 24 lines of intervention. The project will mainstream climate change policy into other sectoral policies (including health); implement a series of actions (best practice, demonstration and pilot) in three pilot areas (urban/peri-urban, river basin, and coastal); fine-tune citizen and administration capacities (structure, knowledge, tools, etc.); and improve governance in the climate change field, among others.
Many other SDGs targets have also significant contributions on climate resilience and adaptation in Spain, such risk reduction and management of national and global health risks (SDG3).
Information from WHO publication. Public health and climate change adaptation policies in the European Union (2018)
Evaluation of the effects of climate change on health accounted for demographic projections and the influence of other sectors under different climate change scenarios. This analysis provided the basis for the development of an observatory on health and climate change, which provides information and supports critical adaptation actions. Such actions include mapping the most vulnerable areas for health under climate change, specific programmes for monitoring and control of vector-transmitted diseases, plans of action in public health early warning systems that enable the identification of risk situations before they occur, and activities aimed at raising awareness of and participation in all activities related to climate change and its implications for human health.