Vulnerability assessment of public health and health care systems to projected climate change in Kathmandu, Nepal
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that global mean temperature will increase by between 1.0 and 6.5 degrees Centigrade within the next 90 years. Even more alarming, average annual temperatures are forecasted to increase by more than 1.0 degree Centigrade by 2029 and by more than 2.0 degrees Centigrade within 50 years in Nepal. Climate change, then, poses a potential significant and emerging threat to public health and would have direct and indirect effects on human health of people living in Kathmandu valley of Nepal, being one of the most vulnerable districts based on the climate change vulnerability index. Kathmandu was selected for a pilot vulnerability study of its public health and health care system in order to provide an evidence base that will have implications for local as well as national policy making. The general objective of this pilot study was to establish the basis for an assessment of the vulnerability and adaptation status of the public health and health care system to projected climate change in Kathmandu, Nepal.