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Overview

Speaker: Professor Sir Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Climate change is due largely to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and short-lived climate pollutants from the burning of fossil fuels and land use change. The global average temperature has increased by about 1°C since pre-industrial times and even if the commitments made in the Paris Agreement are implemented, the resulting increase in temperature would be about 3.2 °C by the end of the century. The effects of climate change on health may be direct (e.g. the effects of increased extreme heat exposure), mediated through ecosystems, such as changes in the distribution of vector –borne diseases (e.g. dengue and malaria), and mediated through complex socioeconomic pathways, such as impoverishment and population displacement. These burgeoning threats could halt and reverse progress in health unless rapid and decisive action is taken to reduce GHG emissions. An additional motivation for rapid decarbonisation of the economy is that many policies to reduce GHGs can yield major near-term improvements in human health, for example through reductions in air pollution, increased physical activity and healthy, more sustainable diets.

Medical practitioners who are Fellows or Members of the College will be admitted free of charge.