The Experts say's climate change could wipe out the past 50 years' progress in
human health, after a panel of medical experts.
The Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change argued
that the threat to the planet was a 'medical emergency' but said that
responding to it offered an opportunity to improve human health.
For example, scrapping coal burning power stations would cut
the production of greenhouse gases and reduce pollutants in the atmosphere that
are leading to respiratory diseases.
The commission also called for the introduction of 'carbon
pricing' - a move that could push up the price of air travel such as 'short
hop, short-term, leisure travel, stag-parties in Barcelona'.
Professor Paul Ekins, director of the Institute for
Sustainable Resources at University College London, said: 'That sort of thing
could become quite a bit more expensive, such that people would think twice
about doing that
People would have more money in their pockets from cuts to
other taxes and if they 'really valued those stag nights in Barcelona, they can
still do it but they'd have to give up more in order to have it', he suggested.
Cutting air pollution as part of efforts to tackle climate
change, for example by reducing transport emissions or coal-fired power
stations, in the EU alone could save 38 billion euro (£27 billion) a year by
2050 due to reduced deaths, the report said.
The health sector also needs to develop clean energy,
promote community care so patients do not have to drive to hospitals, and use
asthma inhalers which do not contain greenhouse gases, the commission said.
In a stark warning, the authors of the report - published in
the latest edition of The Lancet medical journal - said the world was on track
for 4C of warming, with many more people at risk from a rise in extreme weather
events.
Rising global temperatures would see health hit through
storms, floods and droughts, starvation, migration and conflict, as well as
other possible impacts including shifting patterns of infectious diseases such
as malaria.
Commission co-chairman Professor Anthony Costello, director
of UCL's Institute for Global Health, said: 'On our current trajectory, going
to 4C is somewhere we don't want to go, and that has very serious and
potentially catastrophic effects for human health and human survival. It could
undermine all the last half century gains.
'As such we see that as a medical emergency, as the action
we need to do to stop that in its tracks and get us back on to a 2C trajectory
or less requires action now, and action in the next 10 years otherwise the game
could be over.'
He added: 'It is a great global health opportunity. We're getting
fatter, we're getting heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, respiratory ill health,
depression, anxiety.
'All of the things we want to do to protect ourselves
against climate change will improve our health, whether it's active transport,
walking, cycling, eating healthier, sustainable, local diets or cutting air
pollution.
'All of that will have a huge health dividend, health
benefit and save a lot of money.'
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