Overshooting Our Limits: The UK’s Climate and Health Wake-Up Call

  • Posted on: 24 July 2025
Overshooting Our Limits: The UK’s Climate and Health Wake-Up Call

On 20 May 2025, the UK reached its Earth Overshoot Day—meaning that by this date, it had consumed its annual ecological resources, living beyond its share for the rest of the year. Globally, that day occurs on 24 July, but the UK used up its biocapacity much earlier due to high per‑capita consumption. 

The early date underscores how the UK disproportionately exceeds sustainable use of land, food, energy, and carbon budgets and this has impacts on our health. 

Overshoot Day and Climate Pressures 

Overshoot isn’t just about resource depletion—it’s a driver of climate destabilisation, contributing to intensifying heatwaves, floods, pollution, and biodiversity loss, all of which undermine human health. 

 

The Climate–Health Nexus in the UK 

Heatwaves and Mortality 

  • In June–July 2025, the UK experienced another severe heatwave. London alone saw an estimated 260 heat-related deaths, about 65% of which were attributed directly to climate change aggravating the event  

 

Wider Health Impacts 

  • A 1 °C rise in mean temperature correlates with an ~18% higher risk of heat-related illness and a 35% increase in death risk  

Beyond heat, climate change intensifies flooding and extreme events that can exacerbate mental health issues—flood victims suffer higher rates of PTSD, depression, and stress-related disorders. 

 Vector‑borne, Air Quality & Vulnerable Populations 

  • Warmer conditions expand habitats for disease-carrying mosquitoes, potentially establishing dengue and chikungunya transmission in parts of England by 2040s or 2050s. 
  • Poor air quality linked to fossil fuel burning increases respiratory and cardiovascular disease risks. 
  • Vulnerability is highest among older adults (65+), people with chronic illness, low-income neighbourhoods, care home residents, prisoners, and the homeless—all of whom face greater exposure and less adaptive capacity  

 

Linking Overshoot Day to Public Health Urgency 

Earth Overshoot Day serves as a stark reminder that overconsumption accelerates environmental crises—especially climate change, which in turn intensifies heat, pollution, and infectious disease risks. Those early resource deficits thereby amplify health threats across UK society. 

 

What Needs to Be Done 

Strengthening the NHS and Adaptation 

  • NHS adaptation planning must be robust: improving infrastructure, training staff for extreme events, and integrating climate risks into health service resilience. 

🏘️ Community Resilience & Equity 

  • Implementing heat‑mitigating measures in housing (cool roofs, shading, ventilation), particularly in low-income areas prone to overheating. 
  • Expanding green spaces and nature-based cooling in urban neighbourhoods to reduce heat island effects and deliver mental health benefits 

 

Policy & Communication 

  • Health professionals must help strengthen public awareness of climate‑health risks and advocate for joined-up policy across housing, health, environment, and social sectors 

 

 In Summary 

  • The UK’s Overshoot Day  symbolizes unsustainable ecological use that worsens climate-related health impacts. 
  • Rising temperatures, extreme weather, and ecosystem disruptions are already taking lives and driving health inequalities in the UK. 
  • Urgent adaptation—spanning healthcare, infrastructure, community resilience, and social equity—is essential to keep people safe. 
  • Reducing resource consumption and ecological overshoot is not only an environmental imperative—but a public health necessity. 

Our ecological boundaries and our health are deeply intertwined. Shifting Overshoot Day later through resource efficiency, emissions reduction, and equity-driven adaptation isn’t just a sustainability goal—it’s a strategy for saving lives in the UK.