Information from Governance Regulation reporting on adaptation (2023, 2021)

The health sector is covered in the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2021-2030 - PNACC (NAS, 2020) and the Climate Change Adaptation: Work Programme 2021-2025 (NAP, 2021)

Health is one of the 18 areas of work defined by the PNACC with the aim of facilitating the integration of adaptation actions in the different fields of public and private management. The PNACC defines objectives and lines of action that specify the work to be carried out in order to achieve the objectives within the health sector.

According to the Impacts and Risks derived from the Climate Change in Spain report (2021), health is one of eight areas of action that have been identified where the impacts of climate change are or will be relevant in the coming decades, either due to their vulnerability, their exposure or its relevance for urban management.

Health is addressed in several efforts to integrate climate change adaptation into sectoral policies, plans and programs, such as the Long-term decarbonization strategy (2020). Chapter 5 is devoted to adaptation to climate change and 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 Strategic Plan for Health and Environment (2021) dedicates one of its 14 thematic areas to climate change.

Projects and indicators with a health focus have been developed under the framework of the PNACC. The project Adaptation and health protection in the face of climate change created a Catalogue of experiences and good practices in public administrations and companies. A health sector indicator has also been developed.

The health sector receives funding to increase climate resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change in line with a more uniform distribution in budget lines that correspond to different units of the General State Administration dealing with key sectors.

A practical example of aggregate effects resulting from adaptive capacity can be found in the evolution of high temperature-induced mortality. Since 2004, the implementation of the National Plan of Preventive Actions on the Effects of Excess Temperatures on Health has improved adaptation to heat.

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) 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).

Resources in the Observatory catalogue on Spain