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.

“In terms of the impacts of climate change on health when we started 30 years ago, because there was very little data then, so we made suggestions as to what we thought the health outcomes we thought would be affected like vector-borne diseases, crop failures, water availability, sea level rise, increasing disasters related to climatic extreme events, and obviously the effects of extreme heat on vulnerable populations. In particular, elderly people, but not just elderly people. So we suggested a whole range of different health impacts that could occur. And I think, in general, those ideas have stood the test of time, but of course, as the situation has moved on, we've also become much more preoccupied with what kind of action we need to take.

So when we started, we were mainly talking about the effects of extreme heat without being able to attribute them to climate change because obviously heat waves have occurred throughout history, and populations are more or less adapted to different climates. But now I think the science has moved on, and we can be much more competent about attributing either some extreme events or trends in extreme heat exposure, for example, to human-induced climate change. So it isn't just natural fluctuation. So that's a change. And as the evidence becomes stronger, of course, it also strengthens the case for climate action, which sadly, as we know at the moment, is not sufficient to really have the desired effect.

So our knowledge has advanced, but the actions that we need to put into practice have not gone at the same speed. And so we're really facing an increasing climate emergency. And we don't know quite where it's going to end up, but it could end up 2.5%, 3% hotter than pre-industrial times on global average as we reach the end of the century.”

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