A federal watchdog says the government is failing to help states and local governments decipher “gaps” in research when it comes to understanding how climate change affects public health, according to the findings of a report requested by Senate Democrats.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, issued the report Tuesday that identifies the hurdles facing federal agencies in helping states understand the public health risks associated with climate change.
The public heath arguments that the Obama administration has used to justify several of its regulations to fight global warming have been challenged by Republicans and business groups in recent months. GOP lawmakers say it is not clear how agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency are calculating the benefits to public health to justify the regulations. The administration’s regulations target greenhouse gas emissions that many scientists say are causing the Earth’s climate to warm to dangerous levels from the use of fossil fuels.
“When asked to identify challenges they face in addressing and planning for the risks of climate change to public health, state and local health officials identified challenges that GAO grouped into the three most frequently mentioned themes,” the report’s summary reads.
First, state officials said they face challenges communicating the public health risks due to limited public awareness of climate change and its growing complexity.
Second, state and local officials said “gaps” in the research on climate change’s health impact is a major hurdle.
Officials interviewed by the Government Accountability Office “said they face challenges identifying health risks of climate change due to gaps in research and difficulties using climate data,” the report says. In response to the problems, “Federal officials told GAO about actions they have taken or plan to take that could help address these challenges, such as issuing an assessment of climate change impacts on health, and creating a national heat health information system.” But those efforts have been delayed and won’t be rolled out for almost another year, the GAO said.
Third, state and local government officials “told GAO about other challenges they face that federal action may not be able to address, such as having insufficient local data on health outcomes,” the report says. The lack of data on health outcomes is apparent “because states may not collect or have access to such data, and having insufficient staff resources for these activities.”
The GAO says that despite promises of federal programs meant to help states understand the health effects posed by global warming, the Department of Health and Human Services has delayed issuing a new outreach strategy for the states.
The agency “has acknowledged climate change as one of the top public health challenges of our time and is developing a climate change communication and outreach strategy, which has been delayed by over a year, but is expected to be finalized by July 2016,” the report says. Federal agencies are directed by the White House to provide more information on a host of areas where climate change presents hurdles, the report adds.
The agencies “have also supported state and local efforts to address and plan for these risks, in keeping with an executive order that calls on federal agencies to provide them with data, information and decision support tools on climate preparedness and resilience,” the report finds. But those efforts have not managed to address the “limited awareness of climate change as a public health issue” among state and local agencies.
“As we have previously found, public awareness can play an important role in the prioritization of work on climate change,” the Government Accountability Office said. The report was requested by Democratic lawmakers in the last session of Congress.
Democrats released the report Tuesday to raise awareness about the work that needs to be done to face down the public health effects of climate change. “We have a moral obligation to tackle the devastating impacts of climate change on families and communities nationwide, and protecting public health must be a key part of this effort,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state said.
