Climate change and climate disasters directly affect the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and environments in a myriad of ways. Inclusive and community-led health projects can help build local capacity to anticipate, plan for, and respond to climate shocks, strengthening the resilience and adaptive abilities of the healthcare system and its workers.
Integrating health into climate planning and policy through cross-sectoral engagement reduces risk by addressing upstream social and environmental determinants of health, like housing, water security and food systems.
Collaborative research that integrates data, methods, and perspectives across fields is essential to uncover these linkages, identify vulnerable populations, and design effective interventions that strengthen health systems, inform policy, and build resilience in communities facing the growing health risks of a changing climate.
We aim to:
Explore the wide range of climate impacts on health, from heat stress to climate anxiety, using justice-based and multidisciplinary approaches.聽
Investigate health inequities driven by climate change, focusing on vulnerable populations and the social determinants of health such as housing, food security, and access to care.
Develop and evaluate community-led interventions that strengthen health system resilience to climate shocks, including extreme heat events, vector-borne diseases, and infrastructure stress.
Work with Australia鈥檚 neighbours to ensure research meets the needs of communities and partners across the region, and addresses their adaptation and resilience needs.
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Header Image: Photo by Phil Hearing via Unsplash.
This project team including鈥Associate Professor Fiona Stanaway鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health),鈥Professor Geoff Morgan鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health),鈥Mr Joseph Van Buskirk鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health),鈥Dr Shamila Haddad鈥(School of Architecture, Design and Planning) and鈥Professor Ying Zhang鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health) will examine inequities in the impact of climate change driven temperature extremes on hospitalisation and mortality for cardiovascular disease.
The project will look at inequities related to socioeconomic position, geographical location, ethnicity, migration status and visa class, and housing characteristics. This aim of this research is to identify key subgroups in the population, experiencing the greatest impacts of temperature extremes, and help communities adapt to increasing temperatures and build resilience against climate-related health risks.
Led by (Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning), with (Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning), (Sydney Law School), and (Faculty of Science), this project will explore how current health innovation precincts are designed, and governed, and how these might account for the full scope of what constitutes public health in a time of climate volatility, resource constraint, and social inequity.聽
The project will reimagine how health innovation precincts are governed, evaluated and designed and propose a new model better suited for a post-growth future: the WSHED Precinct, which is structured around Wellbeing, Sustainability, Health, Equity and Design.
This project aims to improve the thermal conditions in housing, while safeguarding communities in Sydney during extreme weather events that may disrupt energy services. The team including鈥Dr Shamila Haddad鈥(School of Architecture, Design and Planning),鈥Associate Professor Arianna Brambilla鈥(School of Architecture, Design and Planning),鈥Associate Professor Emma Heffernan鈥(School of Architecture, Design and Planning),鈥Professor Kees van Gool鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health) and鈥Associate Professor Philip Haywood鈥(Faculty of Medicine and Health), will create an online public platform to support inclusive climate action by modelling district energy use, identifying low-income and at-risk areas and populations, and guide targeted energy efficiency updates to reduce energy burden and improve health and housing equity in a climate changing world.
Current clinical decisions are almost exclusively made based on medical outcomes, with some cursory considerations to health economics and value-based care calculations. Carbon and environmental costs in health are not yet considered routinely, but in future will likely become more of a focus in decision making.
This project will investigate the carbon footprint of two comparable cardiac procedures with identical or very similar clinical outcomes but different clinical pathways. The study will compare the carbon cost of coronary bypass surgery with that of coronary stent insertion.
This comparison will provide additional information for clinicians and patients when considering the best treatment options for them. It will also be relevant to Health Systems planning.
颁辞苍迟谤颈产耻迟辞谤蝉:鈥, , Lorraine Ho,鈥,鈥Kirsten Jackson,鈥,鈥, Dr Amanda Irwin, Raymond Van Der Zalm,鈥疍r Kristen Pickles, Dr Scott McAlister, Jake Williams, Philomena Colagiuri.
This project seeks to design a carbon footprint calculator for medical procedures.鈥
The calculator will be designed using NSW Health cost data and environmentally extended input-output analysis.
The work will serve to inform public health policy so that it aligns with the nationally determined contribution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030.鈥
This proof-of-concept project will build on Sydney Environment Institute research that analyses the鈥痗arbon costs of common cardiovascular procedures.聽
This project is supported by鈥疭EI鈥檚 2024 Collaborative Grants Scheme.
颁辞苍迟谤颈产耻迟辞谤蝉:鈥
Australia鈥檚 health system contributes 7% of the country鈥檚 total emissions. Anaesthesia is a carbon hotspot, with volatile anaesthetic gases alone accounting for 2% of the entire health system鈥檚 footprint. Nitrous oxide (N2O, 鈥渓aughing gas鈥) is an inhalational anaesthesia and potent greenhouse gas still in common use in hospitals in Australia. There is currently no data available on the use of N2O in maternity wards from an economic perspective, so it is impossible for clinicians and policymakers to know the full impact of N2O.
This cross-disciplinary project will measure clinician鈥檚 use of N2O in maternity units in Australia, and identify challenges and opportunities for switching to low-carbon alternatives. In close collaboration with SEI and newly-appointed鈥疞eads, this project will combine expertise in behavioural science, qualitative methods, and lifecycle assessment to contribute to a research agenda of global environmental interest: transitioning healthcare to a net-zero future.
This project is supported by鈥疭EI鈥檚 2023 Collaborative Grants Scheme.
颁辞苍迟谤颈产耻迟辞谤蝉:鈥,鈥疍r Kristen Pickles
Email:听sei.info@sydney.edu.au
Donations:听adrian.sanchez@sydney.edu.au
Events team:听sei.events@sydney.edu.au
