São Paulo is today an unsustainable city in which social and environmental vulnerabilities are obliged to tackle the uncertainties of climate change. To face up to this situation, in 2009 the city unveiled its Climate Change Policy. The scope of this paper is to analyze how the health sector is preparing to contribute to the implementation of this policy by 2012. Content analysis was the method adopted by examining official documents and conducting semi-structured interviews. In a context of social transformation affected by environmental degradation and socio-environmental consequences there is a need for the cessation of inertia and a demand for new knowledge systems. The outcomes of the study showed a positive intersectorial dialectic relationship, since the research hypothesis was that the health sector would be called upon to back actions on air quality monitoring. Its verification showed a broad scope introducing health promotion and preventive actions as the determinant focus, especially influencing other public policies. Thus, the process under scrutiny acquired reflexivity when evolving with interactive measures breaking with the traditional sectorial and reductionist policy model. It shows an intersectorial perspective based on the importance of issues related to local public health.
Climate change; Public health; Intersectoriality
