Climate change is the biggest threat to human

health. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change projects an excess of 250,000 deaths

per year by 2050 attributable to climate change

due to heat, undernutrition, malaria and

diarrheal disease, with more than half of this

excess mortality projected for Africa. The record

temperatures the UK experienced in the summer

of 2022 are a reminder that while the impacts

of climate change are not felt equally, they are

happening now around the world.

As a founding member of the UK Health Alliance

on Climate Change, the Royal College of

Physicians (RCP) has been vocal about the health

impacts of climate change. Last year, following

consultation with its members, the RCP formally

adopted sustainability and climate change as

one of its four policy and campaigns priorities

for the first time. This position paper sets out a

range of policy calls from what the government

must do to reduce the health impacts of climate

change to how we can ensure environmental

sustainability is effectively prioritised in the NHS,

as well as considering the population health

benefits of action to reduce climate change.

These recommendations will form the basis for

the RCP’s campaigning work for at least the next

4 years, working in partnership with individuals

and organisations across the health sector,

including the UKHACC. A new RCP advisory group

on sustainability and climate change will look

at what more can be done in the health service

– and by medicine in particular – to improve

healthcare sustainability.

We have a duty to tackle climate change. The

action needed to limit its worst impacts are not

insignificant, and most will require major changes

to the way we live our lives. But the consequences

of doing nothing will be far worse for the health

of the planet and the country. Indeed, many of

the things we need to do to tackle climate change

will bring have major benefits for improving

population health. Tackling air pollution,

promoting walking and cycling (known as ‘active

travel’), and improving the number and quality

of green spaces can all have dual benefits for the

climate and health.

Climate change represents the most significant

challenge that society faces today, not just in

the UK but globally. Meeting that challenge will

require us all to make changes to the way we live

and behave but determined action – particularly

by governments, industry and public services

such as the NHS who have the power to make

the biggest concentrated impact – can make

a meaningful difference. While it is far beyond

the scope of this paper to provide definitive and

comprehensive solutions, it aims to identify areas

where we can make further progress