Switching to public transport could boost global health (Image: Andrew T. B. Tan/Getty)

Driving cars and eating too much red meat damage more than your carbon footprint. Curbing our carbon habit wouldn’t just help us ward off the worst of climate change – it would also make us healthier, according to a panel of health researchers.

The Climate Health Commission was appointed by The Lancet journal to assess the potential health benefits of tackling climate change, as well as the penalties of failing to do so.

The resulting report, published on 23 June, cites huge health advantages as a reason for switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.


Doubling the proportion of renewable energy from its 2010 level of 18 per cent to 36 per cent could save US$230 billion in healthcare costs worldwide annually by 2030, according to the report – a saving of about 3 per cent.

This is because a large amount of ill health is directly or indirectly caused by burning coal, oil and gas. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people every year, while 88 per cent of the world’s population breathes air that falls short of its quality guidelines.

Can we fix it? Yes we can

The result is an epidemic of heart and respiratory disease. Changes such as switching to public transport, cycling or walking to work would also boost health through lowering pollution and increasing physical exercise. Similarly, eating fewer fatty foods and less red meat, whose production contributes to climate change by generating methane gas, could help reverse obesity and some cancers. “There are many win-win situations here,” said Georgina Mace of University College London, a member of the commission.

The report also suggests adopting strategies that would bring carbon dioxide emissions down to lower than current levels by 2070 – a scenario known as RCP 4.5 that would be likely to see mean temperature rises of more than 1.5 °C by 2100 – would save human lives soon. Planning for RCP 4.5 could avoid 500,000 premature deaths annually by 2030, rising to 2.2 million by the end of the century, it says.

“All the things we want do to combat climate change will also protect us against ill health,” said Anthony Costello, also of UCL, and co-chair of the commission.”We’ve tried to turn this debate on its head and say that there are really positive things we can do for our health,” he said at the launch of the commission’s report in The Lancet. “We want to shift the balance from talk of catastrophes to a ‘we-can-fix-this’ mentality.”

The commission is calling on governments to collectively inject an extra $1 trillion into renewable technologies and investments to combat climate change by improving the uptake of renewable energy, as well as preparing cities and citizens for measures that blunt the impact of global warming. It’s a large sum, but much smaller than the $5.3 trillion in subsidies that were given to the fossil fuel industry in 2015.

“The usual excuse for not investing in renewables is that it’s too expensive, but we think it represents prudent future expenditure,” said Paul Ekins of UCL, the team’s economist.