I've just heard about this article on health and climate change:

Hutton G: Globalization And Health 7(18), 27 June 2011
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/pdf/1744-8603-7-18.pdf
The author of this article examines the availability and strength of evidence on climate change, economics and health outcomes for policy makers to draw on in making health policy decisions. Eighteen available economic studies were included in the study. The author found that in those studies that put a value on the predicted increased mortality from climate change, the health damages represented an important fraction of overall economic losses. Equally health impacts were important in considering broader measures affecting the economics of climate change beyond the health sector such as agriculture and water supply. Global adaptation cost studies carried out so far indicate costs to the health sector of roughly US$2-5 billion annually (mid-estimates). However, these costs are argued to be an underestimate of the true costs, due to omitted health impacts, omitted economic impacts, and the costs of health actions in other sectors. No published studies compare the costs and benefits of specific health interventions to protect health from the negative effects of climate change. The authors suggest that until further climate change-specific economic studies have been conducted, decision makers should selectively draw on published studies of the costs and benefits of environmental health interventions.

The article recommends further economic and health impacts of climate change study would be worth carrying out - something which CHC board members have been hoping to push forward.. The conclusion outlines the need for research and information for policy makers.

It suggests that many of the costs are underestimated as unquantifiable, indirect or affecting many diseases of which only a minority are evaluated, and notes the difficulties of valuing life and future costs. It also separates included studies into those that look at: (1) costs of health service adaptation to temperature rise and effects of climate change, (2) costs of prevention and mitigation of negative health effects of climate change and (3) balance of costs and benefits of business as usual vs mitigation/adaptation scenarios to give cost-effectiveness rations.

On the subject of the health and mortality costs of climate change, the extensive referencing of Pearce, Fankhauser and Tol in the 'Globalization and Health' paper by Hutton, is source of concern. None of these authors to my knowledge were ever prepared to dissociate themselves from the scandal they created with the 'Value of Statistical Life' metod they used in the IPCC.