The main parties’ pledges on health

Dear Editor,

We were glad to see that your recent feature ‘The main parties’ pledges on health’ (https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6702) covered commitments on climate action, since climate breakdown presents a potentially devastating threat to health, both globally and in the UK. As stated by the recent 2019 Lancet Countdown report (Watts et al, 2019), ‘The life of every child born today will be profoundly affected by climate change. Without accelerated intervention, this new era will come to define the health of people at every stage of their lives.’

We are responding to your feature to ask that readers keep climate action at the forefront of their minds, and to look at our simple, evidence-based scoreboard (https://issuu.com/climatehc/docs/general_election_2019_climate_health_sc...) for a quick evidence-based guide to how the parties’ policies stack up on key issues such as creating a low-carbon economy, clean air, active transport and sustainable food systems.

Despite the increasing visibility of climate impacts on health and wellbeing at home and around the world, the UK currently lacks adequate policies to achieve the level of emissions reductions required (Committee on Climate Change, 2019); moreover, our updated target of net zero emissions by 2050 appears inadequate both to limit warming to 1.5°C (Walsh et al. 2017) or to address equity concerns. This is particularly short-sighted since many actions that can help cut emissions, from home insulation and active travel to sustainable diets (Willett et al. 2019), can also save thousands of lives directly each year, and reduce pressure on the NHS.

In recognition of the defining impact climate change is likely to have on public health over the decades to come, we developed the scoreboard with a focus on policy areas particularly relevant to both climate change and public health. The scoring process (see the PDF above for more detail on our methods) was undertaken with the assistance of experts in energy systems and environmental policy from Imperial College London (Dr. Iain Staffell and Dr. Oytun Babacan).

Overall, the Green party scored 5/5 in the analysis, Labour 4.5/5 and the Liberal Democrats 4/5. Plaid Cymru are ranked fourth with a score of 2.5/5, followed by the SNP and the Conservatives both at 2/5, the Brexit Party which scored 0/5.

Good health for our families and communities depends on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems. The next Government’s policies must reflect these pressing concerns, and health professionals have a duty to help safeguard the health of children, young people and future generations. We hope that readers will find our scoreboard helpful, and consider sharing it on social media (https://twitter.com/healthdeclares/status/1203270267746889729). Even more importantly, we would ask you to encourage your colleagues and others within your sphere of influence to do what they can to protect our climate and our health.

About the project team:
Dr Yas Barzin, Dr Isobel Braithwaite, Dr Anya Göpfert, Dr Chris Newman, Dr Ruth Speare, Dr Sarah Gentry are all affiliated with the newly-formed climate and health grassroots advocacy organisation Health Declares Climate Emergency (‘Health Declares’ for short) on a voluntary basis and without holding formal roles. The idea for this project began within this network and other members have been consulted during its development; however, the approach and final scoreboard does not necessarily represent all Health Declares members’ views. Alex Crane and Michael Baldwin were involved in creative capacities and are not affiliated to Health Declares; neither are Dr Iain Staffell and Dr Oytun Babacan at Imperial College London, who both provided expert input and suggestions, reviewed the provisional scores in all areas, and were involved in drafting this rapid response and the supporting PDF (https://issuu.com/climatehc/docs/general_election_2019_climate_health_sc...).

References
Watts N, Amann M, Arnell N, Ayeb-Karlsson S, Belesova K, Boykoff M, Byass P, Cai W, Campbell-Lendrum D, Capstick S, Chambers J. The 2019 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: ensuring that the health of a child born today is not defined by a changing climate. The Lancet. 2019 Nov 16;394(10211):1836-78.
Committee on Climate Change (2019) Summary Report: 2019 Progress Report to Parliament. Online at https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/reducing-uk-emissions-2019-progres...
Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A, Jonell M. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet. 2019 Feb 2;393(10170):447-92.