The Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions is a five-year initiative conducting research on climate change and its impacts on health.
Funded by a £10 million grant from UK Research and Innovation and based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus in Cornwall, it is focused on identifying solutions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help people adapt to climate change, and better respond to emerging health threats.
The Centre has partnered with the UK Health Security Agency, the National Trust, Forest Research, the Met Office and several other organisations to deliver its research, which focuses on ‘net-positive’ approaches.
Net-positive solutions aim to reduce the negative health impacts of climate mitigation and adaptation, whilst also contributing to positive outcomes – such as ecosystem recovery and improved human wellbeing.
From increases in heatstroke, heart disease, and the likelihood of new pandemics, preventing the negative health effects of climate change is of vital importance. The Centre’s research is also seeking to ensure that any new measures don’t worsen existing inequalities among those communities most impacted by climate change.
Individual projects are focusing on the design of urban environments, green and blue spaces, and food systems, as well as analysing associations between mental health and climate, and specific mechanisms linking thunderstorms and asthma.
You can find out much more about the Centre when its official website launches soon.
The project runs for five years from November 2024 and is supported by UKRI through its Securing better health, ageing and wellbeing strategic theme, grant number ES/Z504245/1.