Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health
ESOF2024 | 12–15 June 2024 | Katowice, Poland
Sir Andy Haines
Sir Andy Haines
Position and institutional affiliation
Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
BIO
Professor Sir Andy Haines MD, F MedSci initially trained as a family doctor and was Professor of Primary Health Care at UCL between 1987-2000, on part-time secondment as Director, Research & Development, NHS Executive, North Thames between 1994-96. He also worked as a consultant epidemiologist for the Medical Research Council. He worked internationally, including in Nepal, the USA and on secondment to WHO Geneva. He was the Director (formerly the Dean) of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 2001 to October 2010, and was knighted for his services to medicine in 2005. He developed an interest in climate change and health in the 1990’s, and was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the 2nd and 3rd assessment exercises and a review editor for the health chapter in the 5th assessment. He chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel for the 2013 WHO World Health Report, the Rockefeller/Lancet Commission on Planetary Health (2014-15) and the European Academies Science Advisory Council working group on climate change and health (2018-19). He also co-chaired the InterAcademy Partnership (140 science academies worldwide) working group on climate change and health. He is currently co-chairing the Lancet Pathfinder Commission on health in the zero-carbon economy and co-directing the WHO Collaborating Centre on Climate Change, Health and Sustainable Development. He has published over 400 papers on topics such as randomised trials in primary care, the effects of environmental change on health and the health co-benefits of low carbon policies. He is a foreign associate member of the US National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK. He was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2022.
Title of the lecture
Climate change and health - the evidence for action
Climate change is projected to have far-reaching and potentially catastrophic effects on health, with the poor, who have contributed least to emissions, likely to experience the largest impacts. The effects of climate change on health may be direct (e.g. from extreme heat); mediated through ecosystems, such as changes in the incidence of vector–borne diseases, including dengue and malaria, or increased risks of undernutrition; or mediated through complex socioeconomic pathways, such as impoverishment and population displacement. Climate change is already having effects on health, for example a multi-country study suggested that over 30% of heat-related deaths over recent decades can be attributed to climate change.
While human societies can adapt to climate change, there will be limits to adaptation. Cutting emissions rapidly to achieve the target of the Paris Agreement, to limit global average temperature increase to well under 2°C, is essential to reduce the risks to health. Many policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions can yield near-term health co-benefits, e.g. cutting fossil fuel combustion can reduce ambient air pollution deaths, and walking and cycling can reduce the incidence of diseases related to physical inactivity. Reduced animal product consumption (particularly from ruminants) in high consuming populations, and increased consumption of fruits, vegetables and seeds, can reduce GHG emissions and improve health. Valuing these co-benefits can make such policies more attractive to decision makers and incentivise climate action.
