UK health agency warns of alarming health threats as climate change accelerates

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) unveiled a comprehensive overview of the health effects of climate change on the country in a report released Monday, highlighting imminent threats to the nation's food supply, risks associated with air pollution and extreme weather events and the potential exacerbation of health inequalities.

"The potential impacts of climate change on health will be significant and wide-ranging. The evidence is strongest for adverse impacts on health due to heat and cold, flooding, and vector-borne disease risks increasing under a warming climate," it said.

It also expressed concern that by 2060, London could witness endemic dengue fever transmission, with Aedes albopictus -- a mosquito species that can transmit dengue fever, chikungunya virus and zika virus -- potentially becoming widespread across England by the 2040s and 2050s.

"The UK will become more suitable for the survival of vectors of public health importance, notably Aedes albopictus mosquitoes," it said.

The report also pointed to some risks under higher warming scenarios.

“Flood risk is projected to increase more steeply under high-warming scenarios, with the number of people in the UK significantly at risk of flooding projected to increase by 61% by 2050 under a modest warming scenario (+2C) and 118% in a high warming scenario (+4C) compared with current risk,” it said.

“Sea-level rises are highly sensitive to the level of warming, with an approximately one meter difference in projected sea-level rise between low and high warming scenarios," it added.

The report also indicated that the summer of 2022 broke temperature records globally and in the UK, noting that during this period, more than 3,000 people lost their lives in England and Wales due to the heat.

It predicted that by the year 2030, heat-related fatalities in the UK will be 1.5 times higher, and by 2070, they will be 12 times higher. It also estimated that the annual death toll in 2050 will be 10,000.

The report also drew attention to the health risks of climate change in relation to age.

“The long-term trajectory of climate change means that there are inter-generational considerations. For an optimistic low-warming scenario, temperatures are likely to peak midcentury: current working age adults will be in their vulnerable retirement years and those who will be adults in the 2050s to 2080s will face the greatest burden of adaptation,” it said.