How the Global Climate and Health Summit was both uplifting and deeply concerning

‘Climate change is a global health crisis’. This was the main message of the Global Health & Climate Summit 2025, which I was lucky enough to attend remotely. I’m Petra, an Environmental Science student at the University of East Anglia, and I’m currently undertaking a six-week internship with UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. As someone who is greatly concerned about the climate crisis and its associated impacts, it was uplifting to see so many experts speaking urgently about the issue. This conference, convened by The Royal Physiological Society, focused on heat, air pollution, and nutrition; areas with major implications for early deaths around the globe. Despite the serious health impacts of global temperature increase, the topic is not often discussed, and is barely touched on in my degree. Similarly, friends taking health sciences degrees tell me they have little or no content on climate change.

While concerning in itself that institutions and governments are failing to educate future professionals, Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist of the World Health Organisation, goes further; explaining that health’s absence at the forefront of the climate agenda is a missed opportunity to galvanise action, given the ‘universal truth’ that everyone cares deeply about their health.

The conference allowed participants to choose two of the three topics offered. As a non-health professional, I chose air pollution and nutrition; and I found the talks simultaneously inspiring and demoralising, a reminder of the overwhelming scale of this global problem.

99% of the global population live in areas where the air is unsafe…

It always surprises me how little air pollution is mentioned in climate conversations. Few would disagree that just 1% of the global population living in areas with healthy air is a serious concern, but this fact is widely unknown.

A standout talk for me was from Dr Louisa Giles – Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley. Her doctorate, from the University of British Columbia, included the health effects of exercising in air pollution. She started by telling us that from 2015-2022, the burning of land in Canada had significantly increased, causing PM2.5 exposure to soar. This significantly impacted elderly, pregnant and young people, as well as firefighters. While long-term exposure to wildfire smoke causes thousands of premature deaths annually in Canada, Dr Giles noted that even just acute exposure results in hundreds per year. Managing exposure should therefore occur whenever wildfire smoke is affecting air quality, rather than only in severe cases.

She also explained a unique point about wildfires – that they also impact mental wellbeing through PTSD, anxiety and depression. Due to the toxicity of particulate matter from wildfires being 3-4 times greater than equivalent ambient doses, people in areas where wildfires have damaged air quality reduce physical activity by on average 20 minutes a day; seemingly a minor amount, but one with serious impacts on physical and mental well-being on a population scale.

Power up with plants, not pollution

It’s now common knowledge that shifting from animal- to plant-based protein is vital in reducing emissions, but NHS consultant haematologist Shireen Kassam explained the health benefits are less commonly recognised. Plant-based diets are naturally lower in calories and higher in nutrients, helping support a healthy body weight. They are also lower in saturated fat, higher in fibre and lower in sugar. Dr Kassam explained that plant-based diets align with key NHS priorities, including health promotion, commitment to net zero and financial security. Currently, the UK’s unhealthy food habits cost the NHS around £270bn per year. With 2.1bn public sector meals served annually, implementing meat-free defaults in public catering would not only improve public health substantially, but also save enormous amounts of money – just the lower cost of providing plant-based meals over meat would itself save the public over £1.2bn a year! The NHS as a figurehead for health could be a major influence in boosting the scale of this change.

Unfortunately, this change is still some way off – some patients who request plant-based meals are still receiving inadequate or even unhealthy food in hospital, such as nothing but chips and peas (ew). As more people go plant-based, there is a growing need for catering outlets to diversify. The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital piloted a plant-based staff meals scheme, whereby 3000 meals were shifted away from animal products. This resulted in a 40% reduction in food-related GHGs – and importantly, while keeping food satisfaction levels high.

Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, head of the Vegetarian Society of Denmark and one of the key actors in delivering the Danish plant-based action plan, was another standout speaker. Despite having a high meat consumption per capita, Denmark is leading the way in urgently shifting to plant protein. Dragsdahl explained that they wanted to welcome everyone into the plant-based conversation and avoid alienating animal agriculture industries or businesses, ensuring a ‘balance between idealism and realism’. I was relieved, however, upon further research, to learn that part of the plan also included an emissions tax on livestock, as well as returning 140,000 hectares of low-lying farmland to natural areas, and establishing 250,000 hectares of new forest.

Uplifting as it was to see so many health professionals attending, engaging and learning at the Global Health & Climate Summit, I still couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed at the scale of the problems discussed. Only drastic actions from all governments and institutions will be enough to address these in a way that improves health, ensures fair outcomes and reduces fatalities globally – and we just don’t have time to wait. As Jeremy Farrar summarised: ‘climate change is a health crisis, and it’s a health crisis affecting people today’.

To find out more about the Global Climate and Health Summit and what happens next, check out the reflections of the conference chair, Professor Mike Tipton from The Physiological Society.