UK Health Alliance on Climate Change

The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC), also referred to as the Alliance, is an organisation in the United Kingdom of several major health institutions that give it a collective membership of over 650,000 people including doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, with the aim to better public health by combatting climate change. It was founded in 2016 and its founding members include the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the British Medical Association (BMA), The Lancet, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).

UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Formation2016
PurposeClimate change mitigation to improve public health
HeadquartersBMJ Publishing Group, Tavistock Square[1]
Location
  • London
Region served
UK
FieldsHealthcare
Membership
Over 650,000 people (2020)[2]
Chair of the Alliance
Richard Smith[3]
Director
Nicky Philpott[4]
WebsiteOfficial website

Its activities have included producing reports pertinent to air pollution, coal phase-out and carbon footprints. "A Breath of Fresh Air" (2016), proposes a series of actions to clean up the air and tackle climate change, and "All-Consuming: Building a Healthier Food System for People & Planet" (2020), makes a series of recommendations, including calling for campaigns to inform the public on diet and putting labels on food to show what impact that food has on the environment.

Since October 2019, former editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal, Richard Smith is its chair.

Origin

The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC), also referred to as the "Alliance",[5] is an organization in the UK of several major health institutions that collectively aim to promote public health by combatting climate change.[6][7] It was formed in 2016 to lead the health profession’s response to climate change in the United Kingdom,[8] and is an effort to encourage healthcare professionals as campaigners for health and climate.[6]

Its founding members include the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the British Medical Association (BMA), The Lancet, the Royal Society of Medicine[5] and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).[9]

Purpose

Its purpose is to protect and promote public health by recruiing doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to advocate for better responses to climate change.[10][11]

Organisation

It is a member of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, which formed in 2011.[12][13]

Other similar organisations include Physicians for Social Responsibility,[6] the American Public Health Association,[6] Australia's Climate and Health Alliance,[6][14] the US Climate and Health Alliance,[6][15] the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE),[6][16] and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE), collectively with a significant proportion of their national medical workforce.[6][17]

In October 2019, former editor-in-chief of the BMJ, Richard Smith, was elected as chair of the Alliance, succeeding professor Linda Luxon.[3] Its director is Nicky Philpott.[4]

Smith wrote in 2020 that "health professionals have global networks, and mitigating climate change demands global action".[18] As of 2020 its affiliated associations collectively cover over 650,000 people.[2]

Activities

In 2016, building upon "Every Breath We Take", a document published by the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which attributed 40,000 premature deaths per year to polluted outdoor air, the Alliance published its first report, "A Breath of Fresh Air". The report proposed a series of actions to clean up the air and tackle climate change.[19][20] It considers how methods that use collaboration can deal with climate change challenges, particularly for cutting carbon dioxide and improving air quality, by coal phase-out.[5][21][22] In a letter to then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the Alliance highlighted threats of extreme weather events and the need for preparedness.[23][24]

In 2017 the Alliance collaborated with King's College London to show that polluted air covered more than 50% of NHS facilities in London.[25]

In June 2019 the Alliance was one of several concerned environmental organisations to write to the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, urging her to urgently commit to the recommendation of the independent Committee on Climate Change for the UK to set a target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions before 2050.[26] In June 2019, the Prime Minister responded by confirming that a 2050 target would be set in law,[27] the legislation being passed later that month.[28]

In early 2020 the Alliance supported Sir Simon Stevens' announcement that the NHS would aim for "net zero", call on hospitals to reduce carbon from their premises, switch to better asthma inhalers and encourage staff to take more active travel.[29] Later in the year, its report "All-Consuming: Building a Healthier Food System for People & Planet" (2020), makes a series of recommendations, including calling for campaigns to inform the public on diet, relaying messages relating to climate and putting labels on food to show what impact that food has on the environment.[30] It calls for a food carbon tax on all food producers calculated according to the carbon footprint of their products.[31][32]

Members

Members of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change include more than 20 institutions including royal colleges and medical journals.[33] Its members include the Climate and Health Council,[34][35] and as listed on the Alliance's official website, members include:[36]

Publications

References
  1. "Contact the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change". UK Health Alliance. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  2. "NHS England » Greener NHS campaign to tackle climate 'health emergency'". www.england.nhs.uk. January 2020. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  3. "Emerging thinking of our new chair, Richard Smith". UK Health Alliance. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  4. Torjesen, Ingrid (2 October 2020). "NHS aims to become world's first "net zero" health service by 2040". British Medical Journal. 371. doi:10.1136/bmj.m3856. ISSN 1756-1833. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  5. "Climate change | The BMJ". www.bmj.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  6. Al-Delaimy, Wael; Ramanathan, Veerabhadran; Sorondo, Marcelo Sánchez. Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health. Springer Open. pp. 396–398. ISBN 978-3-030-31124-7.
  7. "Launch of UK Health Alliance on Climate Change". www.sduhealth.org.uk. NHS Sustainable Development Unit. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  8. "UK Health Alliance Against Climate Change". RCP London. Royal College of Physicians. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  9. Isherwood, Jennifer; Laybourn-Langton, Laurie (June 2018). "Health and sustainability". Future Healthcare Journal. 5 (2): 84–85. doi:10.7861/futurehosp.5-2-84a. ISSN 2514-6645. PMC 6502553. PMID 31098537.
  10. "Climate change | The BMJ". www.bmj.com. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  11. "Sustainability". www.rcpsych.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  12. "Who we are". The Global Climate and Health Alliance. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  13. Sisodiya, Sanjay M.; Fowler, Hayley J.; Lake, Iain; Nanji, Rosemary O.; Gawel, Kinga; Esguerra, Camila V.; Newton, Charles; Foley, Aideen (2019). "Climate change and epilepsy: Time to take action". Epilepsia Open. 4 (4): 524–536. doi:10.1002/epi4.12359. ISSN 2470-9239.
  14. "Climate and Health Alliance". Climate and Health Alliance. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  15. "US Climate and Health Alliance". US Climate and Health Alliance. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  16. "Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) | CAN International". www.climatenetwork.org. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  17. Maibach, Edward; Sarfaty, Mona; Gould, Rob; Damle, Nitin; Armstrong, Fiona (2020). "A Call to Action by Health Professionals". Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health. Springer International Publishing: 395–405. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-31125-4_33. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  18. Smith, Richard (24 June 2020). "Health Professionals & Climate Change". Sushruta Journal of Health Policy & Opinion. doi:10.38192/13.2.22. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  19. "A Breath of Fresh Air: Doctors' plea for stronger and faster action to clean up our air - BACAPH". www.bacaph.org.uk. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  20. "Keep Scotland Beautiful". www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  21. "Public health cannot wait until 2040, say health leaders". RCP London. 2017-07-26. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  22. Davoudi, Simin; Cowell, Richard; White, Iain; Blanco, Hilda (2019). The Routledge Companion to Environmental Planning. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-71739-7.
  23. "British health systems 'unprepared for devastating effects of climate change'". The Guardian. 30 March 2016. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  24. "UK health services unprepared for climate change, warns major new health alliance". Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  25. Castres, Pauline; Dajnak, David; Lott, Melissa; Watts, Nick (14 June 2017). "Most London hospitals and clinics exceed air pollution limits". British Medical Journal. 357: j2855. doi:10.1136/bmj.j2855. ISSN 0959-8138. PMID 28615165.
  26. "UKHACC Calls on Government to Urgently Adopt CCC net-zero recommendations". UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. 4 June 2019.
  27. Walker, Peter; Mason, Rowena; Carrington, Damian (11 June 2019). "Theresa May commits to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  28. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. "UK becomes first major economy to pass net zero emissions law". gov.uk. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021.
  29. "New 'Expert Panel' and 'grassroots campaign' to help NHS reach 'net zero'". www.healthestatejournal.com. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  30. "UK Health Experts Call for Carbon Tax on Meat". Earth.Org - Past | Present | Future. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  31. Wise, Jacqui (5 November 2020). "Tax food according to its carbon footprint, health alliance urges". BMJ. 371. doi:10.1136/bmj.m4297. ISSN 1756-1833. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  32. "UK Health Alliance on Climate Change Says Meat Should be Taxed to Help the Planet". vegconomist - the vegan business magazine. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  33. Rough, Elizabeth; Priestley, Sara (24 June 2020). "How is the UK adapting to climate change? Spotlight on health". Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  34. Atkinson, Sue; Maugham, Graeme; Stott, Robin (2014). "21. Case study: Climate and Health Council". In Griffiths, Siân M.; Yeoh, Eng Kiong; Tang, Jing Ling (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health in Asia. Routledge. pp. 299–309. ISBN 978-0-415-64382-5.
  35. "Legislate for carbon net zero by 2030". British Medical Journal. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  36. "Members of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change". UK Health Alliance. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  37. Abbasi, Kamran; Godlee, Fiona (23 January 2020). "Investing in humanity: The BMJ's divestment campaign". BMJ. 368. doi:10.1136/bmj.m167. ISSN 1756-1833. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  38. Underwood, Lucy (30 October 2020). "Paediatricians prioritise work on the climate and health". BMJ. 371. doi:10.1136/bmj.m4236. ISSN 1756-1833. Retrieved 19 January 2021.

Further reading
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