Climate change and population health

Description

The repercussions of climate change on human societies and on the health of populations are already perceptible, and these impacts are set to intensify, especially in the event of uncontrolled warming.
Heat waves, impacts on air quality, changes in the distribution of infectious diseases, threats to food safety and healthcare systems... the impacts of climate change on health are numerous and marked by major socio-economic inequalities. Assessing these risks, however complex, is essential if we are to anticipate and prepare for them. In addition, it is necessary to understand these impacts in order to better inform climate change adaptation measures and guide mitigation measures with regard to possible co-benefits in terms of health and equity. 

This course is aimed at Masters and PhD students who wish to understand the links between climate change and public health, and to familiarise themselves with the various tools that can be used to better characterise these relationships.

This course will be structured around three axes:
- general knowledge about climate science, climate governance bodies (IPCC, COP) and conceptual frameworks linking global change and population health ;
- the types of studies and methods used to document the links between health and certain exposure factors affected by climate, in several geographical contexts and on the basis of different case studies;
- adaptation and mitigation policies, their links and co-benefits with contemporary public health issues.
The course will be organised around lectures, workshops, tutorials and group work. The module will be taught in French. Mastery of the basic concepts of epidemiology (types of surveys, measures of risk and association) and a good command of French and written comprehension of English are the main prerequisites for this course.
The module will be assessed on the basis of a ‘flipped class’ session: students in groups of 3 to 5 will have to prepare a short lecture for the rest of the class on a specific aspect of climate/health relations, using a corpus of references already compiled by the teaching team.

Testimonial