1. Outline
The UK Health Expert Advisory Group was convened by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in 2020 to advise on developing an approach to assessing the health impacts of setting the Sixth Carbon Budget, covering the period 2033-2037. The Sixth Carbon Budget will set a new path towards achieving Net Zero UK emissions by 2050. This is the Expert Advisory Group’s independent report to the CCC.
The advisory group was chaired by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director of UCL’s Institute of Health Equity.
The advisory group members were:
- Professor Sir Andy Haines, Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
- Dr Ian Hamilton, Reader, UCL Energy Institute
- Professor Paul Wilkinson, Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Professor Susan Jebb, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford University
- Dr Nick Watts, Executive Director, Lancet Countdown on Climate Change
- Dr Adrian Davis, Professor of Transport & Health, Edinburgh Napier and Senior Fellow in Behaviour Change and Translational
Research, UWE - Professor Helen ApSimon, Air Pollution Studies, Imperial College London
- Sonia Roschnik, Former Director, NHS Sustainable Development Unit
2. Key recommendations
Key policy levers for health and climate change are described in this independent report to the CCC and are listed in full alongside the associated health benefits in the final table of recommendations. In summary these are:
- Support a just energy transition that minimises air pollution from all sources.
- Design and retrofit homes to be energy efficient, climate resilient and healthy.
- Build a sustainable, resilient and healthy food system.
- Develop a transport system that promotes active travel and road safety, and which minimises pollution.
- Develop healthy and sustainable models of work.
The Committee is considering these findings as part of its advice to Government on the Sixth Carbon Budget.
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