London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Doctors from around the world are urging health ministers to ensure that the links between climate policy and health policy are taken into account at this month’s climate change talks in Cancún, Mexico.

In an editorial published simultaneously by the leading international medical journals, including the Lancet and the BMJ, Ian Roberts, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Robin Stott, Chair of the Climate & Health Council, argue that health must be at the heart of climate change policy, recognizing that what’s good for the climate is good for health.

The link between fossil fuel-powered transportation and obesity is one example of how policies to prevent climate change would improve health, a link that should be obvious to the climate change negotiators meeting in Mexico where obesity levels are soaring. The planet is getting hotter and its people are getting fatter and fossil fuel energy use is the cause of both. The explosion in car use in Mexican towns and cities has decimated physical activity. This, combined with an increased availability of energy dense fast food, has propelled the whole population distribution of body mass index upwards. Mexicans are now paying for their car use, with about two hours each day spent in gridlock, atrocious urban air pollution and an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, says Roberts.

The health hazards from climate change are well known with research showing that climate change will increase rates of malnutrition, diarrhoea, malaria and deaths due to floods. What is less well known is that preventing climate change will bring major benefits to health and well being.

Increasing walking and cycling would slash rates of chronic disease with around 10% to 20% less heart disease and stroke, 12% less breast cancer, 8% less dementia and 6% less depression. Reducing livestock production to limit the cattle related methane emissions and deforestation that are contributing to global warming would also save lives by reducing the amount of dangerous animal fats in our diet say the authors.