English Español
Royal College of Physicians view on healthcare sustainability and climate change RCP view | March 2023
Royal College of Physicians view on healthcare sustainability and climate change RCP view | March 2023

RCP view on healthcare sustainability and climate change

Read the statement

Royal College of Physicians' view on healthcare sustainability and climate change RCP view | March 2023

Climate change is the biggest threat to human health. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects an excess of 250,000 deaths per year by 2050 attributable to climate change due to heat, undernutrition, malaria and diarrheal disease, with more than half of this excess mortality projected for Africa.

The record temperatures the UK experienced in the summer of 2022 are a reminder that while the impacts of climate change are not felt equally, they are happening now around the world.

As a founding member of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has been vocal about the health impacts of climate change. Last year, following consultation with its members, the RCP formally adopted sustainability and climate change as one of its four policy and campaign priorities for the first time. This position paper sets out a range of policy calls, from what the government must do to reduce the health impacts of climate change to how we can ensure environmental sustainability is effectively prioritised in the NHS, as well as considering the population health benefits of action to reduce climate change.

These recommendations will form the basis for the RCP’s campaigning work for at least the next 4 years, working in partnership with individuals and organisations across the health sector, including the UKHACC. A new RCP advisory group on sustainability and climate change will look at what more can be done in the health service – and by medicine in particular – to improve healthcare sustainability.

We have a duty to tackle climate change. The action needed to limit its worst impacts is not insignificant, and most will require major changes to the way we live our lives. But the consequences of doing nothing will be far worse for the health of the planet and the country. Indeed, many of the things we need to do to tackle climate change will bring have major benefits for improving population health.

Tackling air pollution, promoting walking and cycling (known as ‘active travel’), and improving the number and quality of green spaces can all have dual benefits for the climate and health.