16th April 2025
The health professionals representing the Royal Colleges, Associations and Societies stress the risks that new oil and gas projects like Equinor’s Rosebank and Shell’s Jackdaw pose to human health.
Burning fossil fuels is the key driver of the climate crisis, which the World Health Organisation has declared a major threat to global health. It has significant health impacts, including increased risk of pregnancy complications, child asthma, acute kidney injury and even premature deaths in vulnerable groups like the elderly.
New research, commissioned by MedAct, shows how UK healthcare workers are already feeling the added pressure of climate change. Almost half (49%) say that they have experienced NHS services being disrupted by extreme weather – like flooding and heatwaves – over the past five years.
Concerningly, more than two thirds (68%) of healthcare workers say that ambulances have faced delays due to extreme weather – such as flooding and storms – and that staff have been unable to get to work. Over half (55%) of those surveyed also observed increased admissions of elderly and infants due to extreme heat.
The majority of UK health workers generally anticipate the impacts of climate change to negatively impact NHS services and patient health over the next ten years, but over half (58%) think that phasing out oil and gas in favour of renewables could have a positive impact on public health.
The letter states that approving new UK oil and gas fields “would be at odds with the Government’s clean energy and health missions and its commitment to deliver clean power by 2030 and to shift from sickness to prevention.”
The Rosebank oil field, which health leaders are calling on Wes Streeting to oppose, is the UK’s largest untapped oil field. It would emit more CO2 than annual emissions of the world’s 28 lowest income countries and was recently ruled unlawful by the Scottish Courts.
Despite this legal victory, its developers – Norway’s state oil giant Equinor and Ithaca Energy – can reapply for consent, and are mounting pressure on the UK government to allow the mega-polluting project to proceed.
Please find the letter in full here and the full list of signatories in the notes to editors.
Richard Smith, Chair of UK Health Alliance against Climate Change commented:
“Toxic greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are severe threats to human health through their role in driving climate change, destruction of nature, and polluting the air we breathe.
“The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care must speak out about the urgent need to end our current dependency on harmful fossil fuels and oppose consent for Rosebank and Jackdaw due to the significant health risks they pose.”
Dr Mark Harber, Sustainability Special Adviser at the Royal College of Physicians commented:
“As healthcare professionals, we are already witnessing the toll that climate change is having on our patients – from heat-related illnesses to respiratory conditions worsened by air pollution. Climate change is now the greatest threat to population health. It requires immediate and robust action.”
“Approving oil and gas field consents directly undermines the government’s commitment to preventing ill health and tackling the things that make us ill in the first place. The health and social care secretary has a duty to speak out against the continued use of fossil fuels which stifles our ability to protect public health, now and in the future.”
Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said:
“Climate change is a substantial and growing threat to women’s health and lives in the UK and across the world. The RCOG has long advocated for the Government to end new fossil fuel licensing in the UK, highlighting that burning fossil fuels directly impacts poor health outcomes and exacerbates health inequalities. It is crucial that the Government recognises the true risks that new oil and gas projects like the Rosebank oil field pose to our health and to the wider NHS.”
Dr Zahra Shehabi, Consultant in Specialist Care Dentistry, The Association of Dental Hospitals said:
“Our dental population is presenting with increasing co-morbidities—some linked to poor air quality driven by fossil fuel emissions—placing unsustainable pressure on an already overstretched system and highlighting the urgent need for environmental action to protect public and oral health.”