Responding to climate change provides opportunities to improve human health and well-being across many sectors, including energy, agriculture, and transportation. Many of these strategies offer a variety of benefits, protecting people while combating climate change and providing other societal benefits.

This finding is from chapter 9 of Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment.

Process for developing key messages: The key messages were developed during technical discussions and expert deliberation at a two-day meeting of the eight chapter Lead Authors, plus Susan Hassol and Daniel Glick, held in Boulder, Colorado May 8-9, 2012; through multiple technical discussions via six teleconferences from January through June 2012, and an author team call to finalize the Traceable Account draft language on Oct 12, 2012; and through other various communications on points of detail and issues of expert judgment in the interim. The author team also engaged in targeted consultations during multiple exchanges with Contributing Authors, who provided additional expertise on subsets of the key message. These discussions were held after a review of the technical inputs and associated literature pertaining to human health, including a literature review,5836b5e1-c6fa-4eaa-b453-93304c3021d5 workshop reports for the Northwest and Southeast United States, and additional technical inputs on a variety of topics.

Description of evidence base: The key message and supporting text summarizes extensive evidence documented in several foundational technical inputs prepared for this chapter, including a literature review5836b5e1-c6fa-4eaa-b453-93304c3021d5 and workshop reports for the Northwest and Southeast U.S. regions.95f971d1-7189-4dd5-8949-447d2fceba57 Nearly 60 additional technical inputs related to human health were received and reviewed as part of the Federal Register Notice solicitation for public input. A number of studies have explored the opportunities available to improve health and well-being as a result of adapting to climate change,25181456-7f49-4348-8ce8-55e4def0e02b with many recent publications illustrating the benefit of reduced air pollution.9d61dfcc-c3f3-4814-809a-22f08d31ab48 09c990e5-09cd-458b-961e-67038aa59fa4 b2155862-7dae-423e-b091-6920f52f2b71 76a779a0-2305-4820-b462-9f5b917260d6 dbc5a7b6-f667-47c9-861f-9d2fcefcde6c 25634d35-e541-465c-b093-3df58b3f8b7b 0be715d7-184e-42cb-af4a-25f9dae2081c Additionally, some studies have looked at the co-benefits to climate change and health of applying innovative urban design practices which reduce energy consumption and pollution while increasing public health,81a84ac5-4314-41ff-8ee8-1620db18cd00 4feed3ba-a773-445b-a97d-383477321352 74b346cc-b4e1-4ba8-a1d0-f3a7a91ff14f 2e990bf2-bbf9-443f-ae2b-a4385e191d56 decrease vulnerability of communities to extreme events568c2c56-eb78-4fec-9960-d3fdf05aeae2 b0818c9e-b245-44be-9851-213def5d25da 74b346cc-b4e1-4ba8-a1d0-f3a7a91ff14f and reduce the disparity between different societal groups.83c3a726-2925-4e5c-afcb-eb63c56f1164 37ae2455-e574-4e7b-92cf-eb16bd633d6b ae0ec413-9568-40fc-bf1c-01c477f8c099 d59b063e-58c2-4c24-95fd-c07f16f92acc ce92ec18-8b0f-4a5f-b752-1d1aaeb21cd9

New information and remaining uncertainties: More studies are needed to fully evaluate both the intended and unintended health consequences of efforts to improve the resiliency of communities and human infrastructure to climate change impacts. There is a growing recognition that the magnitude of these health co-benefits or co-harms could be significant, both from a public health and an economic standpoint. 25181456-7f49-4348-8ce8-55e4def0e02b 4feed3ba-a773-445b-a97d-383477321352 50e17b29-8313-4a48-95e9-cdca2241f4ea

Assessment of confidence based on evidence: Given the evidence base and remaining uncertainties, confidence is Very High

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