New Climate Change Risk Assessment Warns of Growing Health Risks Across the UK

The latest Climate Change Committee (CCC) assessment sets out an urgent warning: the UK must adapt faster to the growing impacts of climate change in order to protect public health, infrastructure, communities and economic security.

Launching the report, Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee, stressed that climate resilience is now fundamental to protecting the country’s future:

“Our lives, our landscapes and our homes are under increasing pressure from the changing climate. But we are not powerless. In an increasingly unstable world, being well adapted to climate change is fundamental to securing our food, energy and economic security.”

She added:

“This report carries a message of hope. The solutions already exist, and proven technologies are available now to help the UK adapt effectively.”

The Committee identified three urgent priorities for government action:

• Better cooling
• Stronger flood protection
• A more secure water supply

These measures are seen as critical to addressing the UK’s most significant climate risks: heat, flooding and drought. The report also warns that the cost of inaction will far outweigh the investment needed to act now.

Key Finding from the health chapter are

• Heat is the deadliest single climate-related health threat in the UK. Without additional adaptation action, excess heat-related deaths in heatwave periods are projected to
  increase from 1,400–3,000 in the UK today, to 3,000–10,000 by 2050. Heat-related Accident and Emergency (A&E) attendances and emergency hospital admissions would also increase. The greatest impacts will fall on people and communities at higher risk of poorer health. Incorporating cost-effective adaptation measures across public health and the health and social care system could reduce projected heat-related health impacts. Further reductions are possible through delivering adaptation actions in the wider built environment
•  Heat and flooding threaten the ability to deliver quality and accessible care. Cost-effective adaptation is possible. Risk assessments and adaptation plans for cooling and reducing flood risk across these settings are needed now alongside dedicated climate adaptation funding. A coordinated approach to deliver low-carbon heating, cooling, ventilation, and improved air quality is needed. Other actions in the health system such as workforce training, capacity management, and effective monitoring can help minimise disruption.
  Strengthening flood resilient infrastructure, early warning systems, and continuity planning help protect public health and safeguard health and social care services from flooding impacts.
•  Social care remains underprepared for escalating climate risks. There is little evidence that climate risks are being considered sufficiently in the sector. Guidance on climate risks exists for the sector, but it does not always appear to be effectively disseminated down to working-level staff, who often lack the knowledge and resources to act.

For Professor Tim Taylor, Director of the Net Positive Centre and a contributing author to the report, the findings underline how deeply climate change will affect public health across the UK:

“We can see the broad ways climate change is going to impact on our health in the UK context. We need further action to address these challenges in the health sector and beyond. Health is not solely delivered by the NHS or our public health teams working in local authorities. It’s delivered by those in the water sector, those involved in planning new developments and building new homes, by those in agriculture and tourism.”

Professor Taylor added that climate adaptation creates opportunities to improve health outcomes if sectors work together effectively:

“As different sectors respond to climate risks, it is important they consider potential ways they could improve the impact they have on health and particularly on the health of those who are most vulnerable.”

The growing risks posed by extreme heat were also highlighted by Professor Dann Mitchell, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Bristol:

“The higher UK health burden from increasing temperatures is a narrative that is even starker now, even in the colder climates of Scotland.We see thousands of deaths per year during heatwaves, and evidence is emerging from a much longer-term health burden consistent with exposure to persistent increases in heat, such as changes in sleep patterns and neurological diseases.”

The resilience of water infrastructure is another major issue highlighted in the assessment.  Professor Guy Howard, Global Research Chair in Environmental and Infrastructure Resilience at the University of Bristol and Director of the Cabot Institute for the Environment, warned that climate change is increasing risks to essential public health systems:

“The assessment of water and wastewater supplies shows that climate change is posing an increasing risk to this key part of our public health infrastructure. While actions are being taken by water companies, much more is needed to provide confidence in the resilience of our services.”

Professor Howard highlighted the particular vulnerability of private water supplies, which are relied upon by around one million households across the UK as well as many tourism sites such as caravan parks:

“There is a particular problem for what are called ‘private water supplies’ on which around one million households across the UK rely, and many more people use when they visit holiday premises such as caravan parks. Much more investment and support from local and national governments across the four nations is required to build resilience of private supplies.”

Researchers at the University of Bristol are continuing work to better understand and strengthen the resilience of private water supplies as climate risks intensify.

Professor Neil Adger, Professor of Geography at the University of Exeter and another contributing author, described the report as yet another warning that climate risks are accelerating:

“We keep repeating the same warnings. The UK is facing some severe consequences of climate change – and these will be felt by people in every one of the four nations and affect what people most value – their own health and the environment in the places they feel at home.”

He pointed to flooding and heatwaves as some of the clearest and most immediate dangers:

“This new risk assessment shows that flooding remains a principal risk and it leads to trauma, economic cost and disruption. Heat waves exacerbate ill health, especially for those suffering respiratory diseases and those summer heatwaves are forecast to become more common. In summary this is another wake up call to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy and to plan for green and healthy homes and places across the UK.”

The report also highlights the need to align climate mitigation and adaptation efforts rather than treating them as separate policy areas.

Professor Cat Butler said:

“This new report on the impacts of climate change confirms severe consequences for health and wellbeing across the UK. The evidence shows that increases in the severity and frequency of floods and heat events represent major threats to both physical and mental health.”

She added:

“The need to reduce the carbon emissions causing climate change while making our systems and places more resilient to these impacts has never been greater. Crucially, responses must consider these two challenges in combination, not as separate issues. Without this, we risk producing responses to reduce health impacts that increase carbon emissions and vice versa.”

Emerging infectious diseases are another growing concern identified in the assessment. Dr Emma Gillingham, Principal Climate Change Scientist in the Climate and Health Assessment Team at the Centre for Climate and Health Security, highlighted how changing climate conditions are already affecting disease risks in the UK.

“Detection of climate-sensitive diseases such as West Nile virus and tick-borne encephalitis in England over the past five years highlights emerging health risks in the UK. It is critical that we improve our understanding of how climate change is affecting infectious diseases. While there is strong evidence linking weather and climate to some infections, such as Campylobacter, Salmonella and Vibrio, our understanding is still limited for many others—especially when it comes to studies projecting how these risks may change in the future.”

Together, the report’s contributors make clear that climate change is no longer a future challenge — it is already affecting lives, health and communities across the UK. The assessment calls for urgent, coordinated action to reduce emissions, strengthen resilience and create healthier, safer places for the future.

Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/ezcrRGDM

WATCH THE CCC’s Explainer video here: