GovWire

Introduction

The last 3 decades across England have been progressively hotter. 2023 was the second warmest year on record after a record-breaking 2022. All areas in England have experienced warmer summers and milder winters, consistent with global trends. These rapidly rising global temperatures, currently 1.09C above pre-industrial levels, will continue to negatively affect population health in England.

Climate change threatens the health of the population and the ability of the NHS to deliver services in both the near-term and longer term. More frequent and severe floods and heatwaves, and worsening air pollution are among the impacts we are already experiencing in our changing climate, with estimated total excess mortality of 2,803 in England during the record-breaking temperatures of summer 2022.

Preparing and adapting to the changing climate is critical to minimise and manage its impact on our ability to deliver functions which support health and wellbeing. Adaptation in relation to health are actions or processes that reduce mortality and morbidity associated with climate change and strengthen the sectors capacity to provide a high standard of care despite the changing climate.

Adaptation actions are often interlinked. For example, long-term adaptation planning often relies on accessible surveillance and climate projection tools, whereas the successful implementation of adaptation actions requires a workforce trained to respond to new challenges. Adaptation actions can also address current health priorities whilst taking health inequalities.

Climate change is already here. There is a clear and immediate need for the health sector to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change that cant be avoided, building resilience into the system as it protects and promotes the health of populations now and in the future.

Background to this call for evidence

UKHSA and NHS England have been commissioned by Defra to jointly provide Government with a Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. This report, an update to the previous third health adaptation report published in 2021, will summarise the latest available evidence relating to climate impacts to the health service and population health, and outline actions being taken by various actors to build resilience to these risks. The findings will inform the forthcoming fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment.

The Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report will:

• provide any new information on or updates to risks and actions from previous reporting round
• assess progress towards completing previous actions, and detail how progress is being measured
• identify any new actions required to tackle climate risk in the health sector
• include any case studies which demonstrate climate impacts and/or good adaptation practices

We encourage input from stakeholders across the health sector including those working in NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Boards, primary care, Health and Wellbeing Boards, and the Public Health system, on this call for evidence.

Submissions of evidence from all interested parties are invited as part of adaptation reporting in the health sector. Note that any positions expressed do not necessarily represent current or future policy.

The deadline for responses to the call for evidence is 27 September 2024.

Next steps

The evidence gathered through this exercise will inform the Fourth Health and Climate Adaptation Report. This is one part of the consultation process; the findings from this call for evidence will be considered alongside further engagement with stakeholders.

Consultation questions

Assessment of current risks

We would like to invite you to share your views on the risks which were identified for the health sector in the most recent Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (2022).

The table below details the 5 risks to health, communities and the built environment identified in CCRA3 deemed relevant to and in scope of the ARP4 health and climate adaptation report. This section asks for your assessment of these 5 risks.

Table 1: the 5 risks in the scope of the climate adaptation report

Understanding the table

The economic magnitude of each risk has been assessed for both a 2C and 4C warming scenario. The following are the UK-wide magnitude categories where the cost of damage (economic) or forgone opportunities are represented in ranges to reflect the uncertainty in the evidence base.

(Negative) means that the projected impact will be a cost, rather than a benefit. For the scale of the impact:

very high means over 1 billion per annum.
high means over hundreds of millions per annum
medium means over tens of millions per annum
low means less than ten million per annum

Note 1: Assessment of H12 taken from the CCRA3 technical report. The Governments CCRA3 assesses impact of H12 in all scenarios as not known.

Survey questions