How is climate change affecting the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases, and how can we become more resilient to these outbreaks?

Background

Adaptation and resilience: Defra is the lead government department for climate adaptation, responsible for the assessment of appropriate action to protect and enhance natural and human systems in a changing climate. Also, for increasing resilience and mitigating against risk. Such assessment is used in many areas, including for the statutory requirement of the Climate Change Act to produce a 5-yearly, “Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and National Adaptation Programme (NAP)”.

Although Defra has overarching responsibility for producing the CCRA and is responsible for managing several climate risks (such as impact on the natural environment), a number of climate risks (such as the impact on transport, health, business) are the responsibility of other government departments (for example Department for Transport (DfT), Department for Health (DfH), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Next steps

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Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

DEFRA Research and innovation interests GOVUK

Related UKRI funded projects