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Dr Sarah Whitmee

Assistant Professor

United Kingdom

I am an Assistant Professor in the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health. In 2023 I was the lead author on the Lancet Pathfinder Commission Report entitled 'Pathways to a healthy net-zero future: report of the Lancet Pathfinder Commission'. At the School I am a Co-I on the Wellcome Trust funded Pathfinder Initiative, which aims to assess and synthesise lessons from the implementation of practical, evidence-based pathways to zero-carbon societies. My role in Pathfinder involves working with institutional partners, including C40 Cities, SDSN, OECD, CDP, AFIDEP and APHRC, to design and deliver policy relevant research aimed at filling knowledge gaps on the co-benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation actions – namely which actions, when implemented, have the largest multiple benefits for health, the environment and prosperity. I am also PI on the UKERC funded WinWindow project which aims to assess the feasibility and data challenges to monitoring and tracking co-benefits in health, environment, jobs and energy from UK net zero policies.

Before I worked at LSHTM I was the Executive Secretary to the Rockefeller Economic Council on Planetary Health at Oxford Martin School and part of the Secretariat of The Rockefeller Lancet Planetary Health Commission. In 2015 I was lead author on the Rockefeller-Lancet Planetary Health Commission report entitled 'Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health'. I have a background in conservation biology and macroecology and have worked on biodiversity indicators in both terrestrial and marine systems, including for the WWF Living Planet Index, which tracks trends in the status and abundance of the world’s vertebrate biodiversity. I am an expert contributor to many international reports, including the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment and as a reviewer for GEO-7. I am a member of the steering committee for the 2024 What Works Climate Solutions Summit, a major global conference on evidence-based policy for climate solutions.

Affiliations

Department of Population Health
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health

Teaching

I am module co-organiser on the Climate Change and Planetary Health MSc for the Planetary Health in Practice module in Term 2. I also tutor on the Data Challenge module on the MSc Health Data Science MSc. I also lecture externally for Cambridge University and Royal Holloway University on Planetary Health,

Research

Planetary Health, Nature Based Solutions, Climate Change and Health, Air pollution, Active Travel, Sustainable Diets, Sustainable Resilient Health Systems, Health Equity, Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital, Biodiversity Indicators, Planetary Boundaries.

Research Area
Climate change
Environment
Modelling
Public health
Research : policy relationship
Social and structural determinants of health
Statistical methods
Systematic reviews
Policy analysis
Country
United Kingdom
Region
World

Selected Publications

Pathways to a Healthy Net-Zero Future: Case Studies from the Pathfinder Initiative
Anton, B; WHITMEE, S; GREEN, R; Haines, A; REYNOLDS, T;
2024
Pathways to a Healthy Net-Zero Future: Pathfinder Initiative Review of Evidence
WHITMEE, S; GREEN, R; Anton, B; Haines, A; REYNOLDS, T;
2024
Further delays in tackling greenhouse gas emissions at COP28 will be an act of negligence.
Romanello, M; WHITMEE, S; Mulcahy, E; Costello, A;
2023
Lancet (London, England)
Pathways to a healthy net-zero future: report of the Lancet Pathfinder Commission.
WHITMEE, S; GREEN, R; Belesova, K; HASSAN, S; Cuevas, S; MURAGE, P; PICETTI, R; Clercq-Roques, R; MURRAY, K; FALCONER, J; ANTON, B; REYNOLDS, T; SHARMA WADDINGTON, H; HUGHES, RC; Spadaro, J; Aguilar Jaber, A; Saheb, Y; Campbell-Lendrum, D; Cortés-Puch, M; Ebi, K; Huxley, R; Mazzucato, M; Oni, T; De Paula, N; Peng, G; ... HAINES, A.
2023
Lancet
Carbon pricing, health co-benefits and trade-offs: protocol for a systematic framework synthesis
Cuevas, S; Nachtigall, D; Aguilar Jaber, A; Belesova, K; FALCONER, J; HAINES, A; WHITMEE, S; REYNOLDS, T; GREEN, R;
2023
Wellcome open research
A call for natural experiment guidance for planetary health
Hunter, RF; HASSAN, S; WHITMEE, S; HAINES, A;
2023
BMJ
Accountability for carbon emissions and health equity.
WHITMEE, S; ANTON, B; HAINES, A;
2023
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Effectiveness of greenhouse gas mitigation intervention for health-care systems: a systematic review.
BLOM, IM; Eissa, M; Mattijsen, JC; Sana, H; HAINES, A; WHITMEE, S;
2023
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
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