In 2008, Medical Director of the Campaign for Greener Healthcare, Dr. Frances Mortimer, and Director of our host charity Knowledge into Action, Sir Muir Gray, were jointly appointed to launch "The Climate Connection" - a new public health partnership for action on climate change.
The initiative (funded by the Department of Health), arises out of more than two years of collaborative work, led and coordinated by the UK Public Health Association (UKPHA). The importance of supporting regionally-led initiatives and partnerships was identified as one of three priority areas at the National Symposium on Health and Sustainable Development in March 2007.
The initiative is tasked with creating a new vision for the role of Public Health in tackling climate change. Everyone in the profession must be equipped to take action, on the basis that:
- Health protection demands detailed understanding of climate impacts, and not only in emergency planning. (How will the climate affect food and energy security, patterns of disease, and health inequalities? Will the developed world be insulated from conflict over land, water and food elsewhere?)
- Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are almost synonymous with health improvement, whether through improved housing, active transport, reduced meat consumption or economic localisation. (Can Public Health provide new drive to the urgent efforts on climate change mitigation?)
The Climate Connection: activities
The national launch took place on 2nd December 2008, proving an inspiring event, with presentations from the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, and the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government, Prof. John Beddington.
Since then, The Climate Connection has been working with the North West and South West regions, to support their many good initiatives already linking climate change with public health, link them together in a coherent strategy, and build on the momentum of the national launch. Our particular focus is on connecting climate change to mainstream public health programmes, such as obesity and inequalities. A south west event took place on 27th February in Bristol.
As a resource for the public health community, we have created a website, www.theclimateconnection.org, carefully designed to encourage inter-professional collaboration, active learning and a growing understanding of the interactions between climate change, carbon emissions and the determinants of health. It also hosts slide packs and other in-house resources, developed by the partnership, including Carbon Addict - a web-based educational tool linking high-carbon lifestyles, health and health interventions.
Download a project outline for The Climate Connection below.