Climate, health, and environment
Climate change has been described as the greatest global health threat facing the world this century. With increasing heat, and increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, comes increasing pressure on human cardio-vascular systems, negative shocks to the food system leading to increased food insecurity, greater spread of infectious diseases, and greater psychological trauma. In parallel, many of the actions required to mitigate climate change have positive health benefits: keeping fossil fuels in the ground; encouraging diets linked to reduced methane emissions; government transport policies focused on active transport and affordable and reliable public transport. Adaptation, planning and building resilience for health will all be required to reduce the negative health impacts of climate change that are already being experienced.
Our research is interdisciplinary and global, we focus on environmental policy instruments, and much of our applied economics research is undertaken in collaboration with climate scientists, public health professionals, and policy makers. One particular area of focus is food security, under nutrition, and climate change, particularly in a lower-income country context.
