BC REACH (BC Research on Equitable Adaptation to Climate and Health)

The flood, fire and heat events of 2021 brought the health impacts of climate change into focus for British Columbians. New public health interventions are required to support effective adaptation, but especially for the most impacted population groups. The BC-REACH (BC Research for Equitable Adaptation to Climate and Health) project is a mixed-methods research platform to build evidence on effective and equitable public health adaptation to climate change. The project’s goal is to equip public health practitioners and residents of British Columbia (and beyond) with new evidence and interventions to enhance their preparedness to a variety of climate change-related health risks. Working in partnership with applied health system partners, this research will ultimately lead to the co-development and evaluation of novel programs and policies that have multiple co-benefits for populations that may be more exposed or physiologically sensitive, or lack the capacity to adapt to a changing climate. By centring equity in this analysis, this research will build knowledge and capacity to reduce population-level health inequities by ‘climate proofing’ the future of the health system’s responses to a wide variety of climate and health risks.