1. Introduction

The World Health Organization (‘WHO’) has identified climate change as the most significant 21^st century threat to health.^[1] There is now growing action on identifying the links between climate change and health, raising awareness of climate change’s significant public health threats and proposing solutions to preventing and mitigating the worst health impacts.^[2] Climate change directly impacts health through the injuries, illnesses and deaths associated with extreme weather events. There are also indirect impacts associated with the effect of ecological changes on the spread of infectious diseases, poorer mental health and wellbeing, and reduced air quality, as well as more limited access to food and drinkable water. While national health systems will need to implement strategies to mitigate and adapt to the health impacts of climate change, law is a powerful tool for advancing action on health and climate change at a population level.^[3]

This chapter focuses on public health laws — that is, the dedicated laws concerned with creating the conditions for people to live healthy lives. The core functions of public health laws include infectious disease control, emergency preparedness and response, and creating public health infrastructure, policies and workforces within governments.^[4] In Australia, each state and territory has its own public health Act,^[5] which follow this core model. However, reforms over the past 25 years have created significant differences in the scope and responsiveness of these Acts to contemporary threats to public health. This chapter evaluates the role of Australia’s public health Acts in mitigating and adapting to the health impacts of climate change, comparing key provisions from legislation in each jurisdiction. To date, public health laws have played a limited role in facilitating climate change adaptation,^[6] although provisions on infectious disease control and emergency preparedness are central to managing critical climate change related health threats. A wide range of (interacting) laws are also important for preventing and mitigating the health impacts of climate change, including workplace health and safety laws, environment and planning laws, and emergency management laws operating at state and federal levels in Australia.^[7] However, reforms to public health laws in some states show that pathways are opening for these laws to play a more central role in addressing and mitigating the health impacts of climate change.