Call for Proposals: “Ethical Issues arising in Research into Health and Climate Change”

The Forum will be built around case study presentations to ensure that discussion of the ethical issues remain grounded in the practical realities of how research is conducted, particularly in low resource settings. Compared to traditional meetings, GFBR is unique in that it is limited in size and built around small group discussions of case studies that are submitted by participants. The Forum prioritises the participation of colleagues from low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), encourages networking and mentoring, and creates a venue for open and inclusive discussions.

GFBR will focus specifically on the ethics of research into health and climate change, including research into interventions at all levels to respond to the health impacts of climate change, with a particular emphasis on LMICs. Research in this area ordinarily involves the use of rigorous methods to generate data with the aim of better understanding the impacts of climate change on health, including the health of non-human aspects of the biosphere, and identifying means better to protect and promote human and non-human health in the face of climate change.

Themes

• Justice and fairness in the research agenda
• Epistemic justice
• Research and climate
• Incorporating the value of the non-human world
• Research involving multiple disciplines
• Research governance

Topic Scope

• They are interested in receiving case studies from a variety of perspectives and contexts and on a broad range of issues. A brief outline of the identified health impacts of climate change is given below, highlighting the breadth of the possible research agenda. The organisers are interested in case studies of research on these health impacts, which broadly speaking can be separated into direct and indirect impacts.
• Direct health impacts
  • Climate change has a range of direct health impacts on human health including injury, illness and death.
    • Extreme heat is driving a range of health effects associated with challenges to body temperature regulation, including heatstroke, heat exhaustion and hyperthermia. Extreme heat also exacerbates chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes-related conditions.
    • Extreme climate events are having a direct impact on health, arising most obviously from flooding and wildfire.
• Indirect health impacts
  • Indirect health impacts of climate change arise as a result of cumulative changes to the environment. These include the following:
    • Mental health and wellbeing are increasingly being undermined by climate change. Eco-anxiety and ‘solastalgia’ – the loss associated with climate-driven changes to the home environments – are emergent forms of distress associated with climate change, particularly among younger generations. Extreme heat is also a driver of altered affective states, suicidality and post-traumatic stress disorder; and extreme climate events can lead to short- or long-term impacts on mental wellbeing.
    • Food and water stability is increasingly threatened by climate change, particularly through excess heat and associated droughts. Falling crop yields, salination of fresh water supplies through rising sea levels and loss of agricultural labour through extremes of daytime heat have significant health impacts, including through malnutrition and shortage of local and traditional foodstuffs leading to reliance on imported foods.
    • Human displacement and migration are increasingly being driven by climate change, and, on current trajectories of greenhouse gas emissions, they are likely to intensify. Humanitarian organisations are already factoring climate-driven migration into crisis response. The health effects of forced migration include the mental and physical effects of the disruption of traditional livelihoods, the potentially devastating health impacts of migrating, including exposure to violence, loss of access to health and other services, increased exposure to infectious diseases and other health threats during migration.
    • Existing health inequalities are likely to be reinforced and exacerbated by climate change. Displacement, loss of traditional livelihoods and employment and education patterns, rising costs of food and other staples, poorer mental and physical health are all likely to drive increases in poverty, further undermining health and wellbeing.
    • Loss of biodiversity and the disruption of ecosystems can lead to food instability, particularly access to local and traditional foods. They can exacerbate the zoonotic transfer of diseases and deplete natural resources for drug discovery and development.
    • Physical activity including manual labour and recreational exercise can become more difficult where high temperatures reduce the number of hours or locations for safe physical activity with consequences for physical and mental health.
  • This list is taken from the background paper and is illustrative and non-exhaustive.

Eligibility Criteria

• The majority of participants are selected through a competitive process. Up to 60 participants will be selected from those eligible who apply by the deadline. They are seeking broad geographical representation, a mix of disciplinary expertise including health researchers, clinicians, healthcare workers, bioethicists, policy-makers, health system functionaries, and lawyers, and a combination of people who are early in their careers and leaders in their fields.
• Accurate journalistic reporting is essential to ensure that the public are engaged and well informed about research. For that reason, GFBR will support the participation of up to three journalists from LMICs. The meeting will provide a unique opportunity for talented journalists to network with international experts and forge stronger connections between health researchers, ethicists, policy-makers and journalists. Funding support will be provided to LMIC based journalists only.

For more information, visit GFBR.