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The Government Actuary’s Department’s (GAD) Head of Climate and Disaster Risk has outlined how systems thinking can be used to explore the complex relationship between climate change and health.

The comments from Georgina Bedenham were made at a recent International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) webinar exploring the links between climate change, population ageing and health.

At “Unpicking the web: climate change and health”, Georgina joined an expert panel to discuss how climate change affects population health and the systems that support people as they age.

Understanding climate-health risks

The event was co-hosted by ILC UK, the ILC Global Alliance Climate Change Committee and GAD.

During the session, Georgina shared GAD’s work exploring climate change as a compounding risk. Her presentation highlighted how climate-related hazards can affect health outcomes both directly and indirectly:

• direct impacts include flooding and storms leading to injuries and mental health impacts, and extreme heat increasing the risk of heat-related illness and dehydration
• indirect impacts include disruptions to healthcare delivery due to infrastructure strain or reduced healthcare budgets due to climate-related impacts on economic growth

These impacts do not occur in isolation. They can interact and cascade through interconnected health, economic and social systems.

Georgina spoke about GAD’s work around climate change and health. Drawing on evidence and engagement with a diverse group of stakeholders, GAD has co-developed a systems map that helps identify the interconnections between climate-related hazards and mortality in the UK. 

The webinar provided an opportunity to share emerging findings from the project and future plans.

Georgina’s presentation was followed by insights from:

• Professor Liat Ayalon (School of Social Work, Israel) who presented a case study from Togo, highlighting how climate change has affected food security, social cohesion and migration among older persons.
• Professor Torsten Kleinow (Research Centre for Longevity Risk, University of Amsterdam) explored the effect of heatwaves on short term mortality spikes across Europe.

The panel discussion drew on perspectives from South Africa, Bangladesh and Europe which highlighted the global nature of climate-health challenges and the importance of understanding how impacts vary across different populations and contexts.

Actuarial analysis

GAD’s ongoing work aims to deepen understanding of the interactions between climate change and health, supporting actuarial analysis to enable more informed policy and decision-making in the face of growing uncertainty.

A recording of the event is available on the ILC UK webinar page.