Why Climate Policy Needs a Health Check - Professor John Newton explains

 

In this compelling video podcast, Professor John Newton, Chair of the Net Positive Policy Panel, explores why understanding the connections between climate change and health is more urgent than ever. As extreme weather events and rising temperatures increasingly impact health, the Net Positive Centre champions a hopeful, solutions-driven approach—emphasising that action on climate can bring powerful health benefits. Professor Newton discusses how the Centre is placing health at the heart of climate policy, tackling inequalities, and supporting timely, collaborative, evidence-based responses. Watch to learn why we can’t afford not to act—and how the Centre aims to turn climate challenges into opportunities for better health and equity.  

Why is it vital to better understand the links between climate and health? 

There’s a lot of understanding now about the changes in climate and the effect that that’s starting to have on our weather and our temperatures at different times of the year. That’s not just in other countries around the world but we are seeing it and feeling it ourselves at home. 

Increasingly, there’s also evidence appearing that these changes in climate also have direct effects on health, and in particular, the fact that we’re going to have more hotter summers and more extreme ranges of weather. This will have an effect on people’s health. We know, for example, the numbers of people who die suddenly, unexpectedly during a heat wave goes up. 

So there is concern about the effects of climate change directly on health. 

This is ‘The Net Positive Centre’- why positive? 

Well, there’s no doubt that climate change is a very serious problem, both for the effect it has on infrastructure and we know that there are going to be health effects. The Net+ Centre really takes a positive stance and an optimistic stance here, because we know that some of the things that we need to do to tackle climate change and to address the health impacts can have significant positive net benefits for our health. The role of the Net+ Centre is to try and draw that out. The narrative shouldn’t just focus on the problems, the economic cost and the health disadvantages of climate change and the difficulty of doing something about it. We must have a balanced discussion about the things which will make a difference and which will be positive. 

What are example of this ? 

Nearly all of the areas where climate change has an effect on health, there are potential strategies to both mitigate the effect, but also to adapt to it and those changes do have some positive benefits. So, for example, the best way of protecting people from extremes of heat is to design buildings in such a way that they remain at a comfortable ambient temperature throughout the year, regardless of the conditions outside. And that’s a that’s an overall benefit.  

The co-benefits of climate adaptation and health is not a narrative that we’re hearing currently.  How important is it that we bring those threads together in public conversation? 

In terms of policy, I  think there are two things which the Net+Centre will do which are really important. The first is to place health centre stage in terms of discussions about climate change, because there’s a danger that it all just seems like it’s all about money and the cost of mitigation and adaptation.  

And the second thing is to try and turn the discussion around so that there is more optimism. The message is clear –  it’s not that we can’t afford to do what’s necessary, but that we can’t afford not to do what’s necessary, because unless we adopt low carbon approaches, unless we design the future to be more climate resilient, we will have a terrible time.  

A major consideration is inequalities- how will the Net+ Centre address this? 

It’s very clear that the people who are most affected by climate change in terms of their health will be the more disadvantaged groups who are less able to mitigate the impacts of climate change, who have less agency and less freedom to adopt the approaches which will protect them.  

So it is very important for us to understand that better, both through developing new evidence, because there are some big gaps but also we need to work across different sectors, to work with communities themselves, to try and understand how change can be made in the positive way that will protect people from the changes for the likely changes In climate. 

Tell us about the Net+ Policy Panel and why it is vital to impact? 

The policy panel has three functions. The first is to work with the Net+ Centre team to ensure that any research that’s done s highly relevant to policy, the second thing is to make sure that the research which is done has the best possible impact in terms of policy, and then the third thing is a bit more subtle, but there are ways in which the panel can advise the Net+ Centre on how to have more impact through policy engagement. 

 We’re very keen to represent the different countries of the United Kingdom, because we think there’s a lot to learn from those countries, but also because the policy settings, are slightly different in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and so on. And then we’ve got some we’ve got some people from representing different different sectors, so not just the health sector.  

How important is it for the Net+ Centre to be engaged, responsive and dynamic in the way it works ? 

My hope for the policy panel is that we can really ensure that Centre has the maximum possible benefit as quickly as possible and we’re going to do that by helping our colleagues or researchers to really focus on the things which are current policy priorities, so that the questions that people have in government and in other areas other sectors can be picked up as early as possible, 

The aim is to develop new evidence as quickly as possible to fill that gap, because otherwise there is going to be a huge missed opportunity to try and influence the policy which is being developed right now, so that it is based on the best evidence and has the best positive net impact on health 

How important is a collaborative culture ? 

I think the culture of the Net+ Centre is very important and the way the that it is being developed is to ensure that it doesn’t just operate only in the university sector but across sectors.  I think we’ve learned this from from the COVID pandemic as it’s so important that the people who are using research to make important decisions, whether that’s about resources or policy or even legislation,  understand and appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence and that there’s a good dialog and opportunity to discuss between academics and policy makers that us embedded in the country’s response to climate change. 

How important is timeliness in planning for climate change?  

When looking at climate change and the health effects of climate change, time is really not on our side. We have to move very fast, because whenever we look at the evidence, we can see that things are moving ahead and that’s where the policy panel can help.  

We have not got time to waste looking at the wrong questions, the wrong research questions, and then find out later, and then go back and do things differently. We’ve got to get the question right first time, because if you don’t do that, then you are going to, you are going to lose time. We have to  make sure that we get the design right first time, so that when we do get the results, they are the results which policy makers can use. 

When looking at the health of the population, how broad a scope is being considered ? 

The Net+ Centre is focused on the health effects of climate change and how we can maximize the health benefits of the response to climate change.  Extreme events are important, the impact of heat and floods for example. There are also certain infections which, as the as the temperature rises, will become a bit more prevalent, some of those infections, which we think of as tropical diseases, might become common in the in the UK. Then there are some rather subtle effects on our diet and nutrition, the way food grows and the availability and security of our food might be very important and indeed in the nutritional content of food will change as climate changes. Finally,  there are direct effects of climate change on health and care services. So we know that in times of extreme weather or heat wave, it’s more difficult for the NHS and for social care providers to look after vulnerable people and so that’s another area where we have to really look at what we can do to to mitigate and and to adapt to the to the likely changes in climate.