Action to improve the nation’s resilience is failing to keep pace with the impacts of a warming planet and increasing climate risks facing the UK.

The Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk (the third Climate Change Risk Assessment - CCRA3) reviews the risks and opportunities facing the UK population from climate change, including risks to human health and wellbeing.

The project, involving 130 organisations and over 450 contributors, was led by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and resulted in an a 1500-page technical report to advise the UK government.

Dr Sari Kovats, from the Centre on Climate Change & Planetary Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Dr Rachel Brisley from JBA Consulting, co-led the evidence review on ‘Health, Communities and the Built Environment’.

They outline the risks of extreme weather like heatwave and floods, food safety, infectious diseases, and explain who is most affected now and in the coming decades.

Dr Sari Kovats, Associate Professor of climate change and health, said: “This report is a remarkable achievement. We have reviewed not only how recent extreme weather affected our health, but we are now able to look at the effectiveness of the strategies for addressing these risks. Our findings reinforce the message that a lot of the risk to health from climate change can be avoided by improvements to the built environment – healthier houses and urban planning”.

Since the last Climate Change Risk Assessment report in 2017, evidence shows some net zero housing policies could increase the risk of overheating in buildings. This report highlights strategies for cooling must also be considered to reduce the dangerous consequences of heat.

High temperatures and heatwaves are increasingly affecting health and wellbeing, particularly in England, which is showing trends of increasing heat-related deaths and disruptions to hospitals, care homes and schools.

With greater understanding of health determinants there is a need to tackle the range of housing interventions including mitigation, damp, flooding, overheating in a holistic manner.

The team also analysed flooding, food safety and infectious disease risks. With approximately 1.4 million people across the UK at risk of frequent flooding, flood defence strategies need to be maintained.

Climate change is likely to affect food security in the UK due to disruptions to the supply chain from climate hazards both in the UK and abroad. Further action is needed to assess the implications of net zero and access to healthy diets.

The COVID-19 pandemic will place great strain on the health and social care system for some years to come, even once the pandemic has passed, which could make capacity to address climate change more limited.

The analysis brings to light that well-designed net zero strategies have the potential to bring significant co-benefits in terms of population health and wellbeing, and a wide range of health impacts must be considered in the UK’s climate change adaptation strategy.

Read further information on the JBA consulting blog: Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk – we are struggling to keep pace with climate impacts.