“So in many cities, it's certainly true in many US cities, the poorer neighborhoods are much less likely to have green space, and they're much more likely to suffer exposure to extreme heat. So one issue is redesigning cities to withstand these climatic shocks, reducing the inequities in the prospects for living that many people have. And thinking about how to minimize the potential impact of climate change by increasing inequities, which could happen unless we forestall that. So that's one issue. The other is how we recreate the transport systems. Now in many industrialized countries, of course, we depend very much on the private car, and that leads to congestion, traffic, traffic injuries, and deaths on a global scale, about 1.3 million people a year die of traffic injuries. I won't call them accidents because I think many of them can actually be can be factored out with appropriate policies. So we need to think about win-win policies, which will make cities more pleasant places to live and reduce their environmental footprint. And one of the approaches, of course, is by creating more active opportunities for active travel, walking and cycling, safer walking, and cycling, but also better public transport systems. So reducing our dependence on a private car and then emphasizing more when we do need to use a car. Shared ownership, for example, is one option. So a number of things can be done. But of course, in order to change people's travel patterns, you need to make active travel, and public transport, both affordable, safe, and pleasant. And, and that's, I think a challenge for urban planners that we need to focus much more on that. And also, this has led to the rise of the concept of the 15-minute city, in which basically all basic services are within 15 minutes walking or cycling.”

Andy Haines was formerly a family doctor and Professor of Primary Health Care at UCL. He developed an interest in climate change and health in the 1990’s and was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the 2nd and 3rd assessment exercises and review editor for the health chapter in the 5th assessment. He was Director (formerly Dean) of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 2001- October 2010. He chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel for the 2013 WHO World Health Report, the Rockefeller /Lancet Commission on Planetary Health (2014-15) and the European Academies Science Advisory Council working group on climate change and health (2018-19). He currently co-chairs the InterAcademy Partnership (140 science academies worldwide) working group on climate change and health and is also co-chairing the Lancet Pathfinder Commission on health in the zero-carbon economy.  He has published many papers on topics such as the effects of environmental change on health and the health co-benefits of low carbon policies. His current research focuses on climate change mitigation, sustainable healthy food systems and complex urban systems for sustainability. He was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2022.

www.lshtm.ac.uk

https://tylerprize.org
www.interacademies.org

www.creativeprocess.info
www.oneplanetpodcast.org
IG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast