At the WHO Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in London in 1999, countries recommended developing the necessary capacity to undertake national health assessment of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change with the aims of identifying the vulnerability of populations and subgroups and ensuring the necessary transfer of expertise among countries.

This publication is a response to this call. It is a result of an extensive consultation process involving many institutions. It provides an overview of the methods available to assess vulnerability to climate change and includes practical, real-life information for governments, health agencies and environmental and meteorological institutions in both industrialized and developing countries.

We hope that the world community will take the necessary steps to address the causes of climate change. In the mean time,we are confident that this work will help public authorities at all levels identify and implement measures that will facilitate adaptation to climate change and protect human populations from the most serious and preventable health effects in each context.