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This policy brief from the MEDIATION project evaluates the use of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) as a decision support tool for climate change adaptation. While CEA is a primary tool for mitigation, the document highlights that its application to adaptation is more challenging due to the lack of a single common metric and the critical need to account for uncertainty.

This policy brief, produced as part of the European Commission FP7 funded MEDIATION project, evaluates Robust Decision Making (RDM) as a decision support tool for climate change adaptation. RDM focuses on identifying strategies that perform well across a wide range of plausible futures—prioritizing 'robustness' over 'optimality'—particularly in situations of 'deep uncertainty' where probabilistic data is scarce.

This report analyzes the global health and economic burden of red and processed meat consumption, finding that in 2021, these foods caused over 600,000 deaths and millions of years of healthy life lost. It highlights that wealthy nations in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania face the highest disease burdens and often spend heavily on treating preventable conditions rather than investing in prevention. The report argues that dietary interventions, such as reducing meat intake, could save billions of dollars in healthcare costs—for example, a 30% reduction in processed meat burden could save the US USD 21 billion annually—and significantly reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.