The Climate Exposome

The current state of play in the climate policy debate focuses on two key aspects: the relevance and proper extent of mitigation measures in order to avoid crossing the point of no return; and the necessity for adaptation measures considering the very different socio-economic state and dynamics across the globe. Proper assessment of the health benefits of policy measures geared towards adapting to the incumbent climate change is a key requirement for accurate impact assessment of the measures envisaged. Reliable quantification of direct and indirect impacts related to both climate change and to climate mitigation policies and measures is a sine qua non for further climate action. Lack of reliable data and comprehensive integrated assessment models hampers decision-making in government, industry and the financial sector. The exposome accounts for the totality of exposures over an individual’s life course, focusing inevitably on age windows of increased susceptibility. Making use of the exposome for comprehensive health risk assessment on the population scale requires development of advanced statistical and biochemical/pathology models based on a combination of environmental and high dimensional biological data, enhanced by machine learning and big data analytics. In addition, agent-based models help capture the changing socioeconomic dynamics that influence societal vulnerability to climate-induced health stress. Considering the change in environmental pressure and human exposure to health stressors linked to climate change would allow us to construct the climate exposome: namely, the exposome of human population subgroups considering the climate change aspects relevant to the ca. 80 years of the human life course. Herein we present the methodological framework for unraveling the climate exposome with examples demonstrating its applicability and usefulness in climate decision-making are given. The ultimate objective at this point is to start the scientific discussion on the new generation of integrated assessment models. This entails a model scheme based on enhanced data fusion and on the concept of ensemble modelling, supported by big data analytics for filling data gaps. The climate exposome methodological framework is applied in two EU projects, ICARUS and URBANOME, aiming at exploring win-win solutions for minimizing environmental and health impacts in urban areas through the development of integrated tools and strategies in support of air quality and climate change governance in EU cities. Technological and non-technological measures have been proposed, taking into account societal dynamics and motivating citizens towards adoption of environment-friendly alternatives with a positive impact on their health. The ICARUS and URBANOME methodology has been applied in eight EU cities, including Athens and Thessaloniki. Among the investigated scenarios, in the Greater Athens Area, the scenario with the highest emission reductions for all pollutants is the promotion of sustainable mobility through eco-driving, cycling and walking, as well as an enhanced usage of public transportation in Athens metropolitan area, while in Thessaloniki, highest reductions of air pollutants has been obtained for transport related measures such as promotion of green vehicles and promotion of public transport and the use of metro by building an integrated urban mobility system