Researchers explore the health benefits of climate change policies
25 November 2009
The research, conducted by an international team led by Professor Sir Andrew Haines, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and part-funded by the Wellcome Trust, analyses the effects of policies to tackle climate change in four sectors: food, transport, household energy and electricity generation.
The series was launched at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine today, ahead of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December.
Today's meeting was attended by the UK Secretary of State for Health, and linked via satellite to a simultaneous event in Washington. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan both sent recorded messages to highlight the importance of the work.
The Wellcome Trust supported this series as part of its wider activities to address the health impacts of climate change.
Among the key findings of the series were that many measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have positive impacts for health in both high- and low-income settings. These co-benefits will offset some of the costs of mitigating climate change, and should be taken into account in international negotiations.
For example, in low-income countries, inefficient traditional solid fuel stoves create very high levels of indoor air pollutants. National programmes to introduce low-emission stove technology could avert millions of premature deaths, and constitute one of the strongest and most cost-effective climate-health linkages.
Cutting emissions through more walking and cycling, and reducing motor vehicle use, will bring substantial health benefits, including reduced cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes and dementia.
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, responded to the series, saying: "Al Gore described climate change as 'An Inconvenient Truth', but the findings of this study offer a very convenient truth. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not only essential to help tackle climate change, it is also an important way to improve public health.
"We urge world leaders, when they meet in Copenhagen next month, to take account of the health impacts of different mitigation strategies, and to work towards a solution that improves both the health of our planet and its people."
The series has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Royal College of Physicians, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Department for Health, National Institute for Health Research, the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences, with support from WHO.
Watch our video, 'Tackling Climate Change: The good news', to find out more.
Running time: 8 min 35 s
View on this video on YouTube
