National Emergency Briefing

Dr Lee and co-chairs Dr Helen Fernandes and Dr Ellen Welch represented DAUK at the briefing. Hundreds of MPs, Peers, and leaders from business, faith, sport, and culture also attended Ten of the UK’s leading experts on the climate and nature crisis delivered the briefing. The the audience with the latest implications for health, food, national security, and the economy. The experts emphasised the threats were no longer distant projections but rapidly accelerating realities that will profoundly affect public health. Dr Lee is the driving force behind Our Health, Our Planet.

Our Health, Our Planet

The website brings together hundreds of resources with the aim of raising greater awareness of the threat of climate change to people’s health and steps they can take to minimise it. Dr Lee said: “Tackling climate change must be the number one health priority for the government. “Doctors and healthcare professionals are already seeing the health impacts of the climate crisis, from heat-related illness to respiratory disease caused by poor air quality. “The public needs to understand the scale of the risks we face and the solutions available, which is why we’re supporting this call for an urgent televised national emergency briefing. “It needs to be backed up by a comprehensive public engagement campaign.

Climate change

“Clear and accurate communication is critical. People need to understand the risks, but also the steps we can take to tackle climate change and to protect health.” Dr Lee is the driving force behind Our Health, Our Planet. The website brings together hundreds of resources with the aim of raising greater awareness of the threat of climate change to people’s health and steps they can take to minimise it. The letter urges the Government and broadcasters to deliver a national emergency briefing and launch a comprehensive public engagement campaign. It concluded: “If delivered urgently and truthfully, with ambition matching the scale of the crisis, this will not only ensure that the public is properly informed but will also offer the protection that knowledge and preparedness bring.

Public engagement campaign

“Such a campaign will resonate with the public, opening up the political space for the action needed. “We are not safe. This is an emergency. Now is the time for courage and to put trust in the public. The UK has a track record of uniting to face difficult challenges. Now is the time to do this again.” Click here to read and sign the letter. DAUK committee members are volunteers and campaign about issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Our Health, Our Planet

“What began as a small, collaborative idea has turned into a global resource that supports health professionals to have more conversations about how climate change is affecting health. “It’s helping to build a community of healthcare workers ready to lead on climate action and public health.” Our Health, Our Planet is believed to be the largest resource of its kind in the UK. It aims to provide accessible information about climate change, its health impact, and what we can do to tackle it. It includes information on how climate change affects different health specialities, professions, and health conditions. The resource is supported by DAUK, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, EcoMedics, Green Health Wales, Real Zero, Greener Practice, Society for Acute Medicine, SEE Sustainability, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, and CPDmatch.

One year on

In the first 12 months, it has been accessed by more than 3,500 users from more than 80 countries. It currently attracts around 50 new users a week. New specialty pages have been added in palliative care, genito-urinary medicine, ophthalmology, and optometry, making the site even more relevant to clinicians across disciplines. Its visibility has grown too. OHOP has been presented at multiple events including the Doctors’ Association UK 2025 Conference, Wales Climate Week 2024, NHS Wales Sustainability Conference 2025, Welsh Intensive Care Society Conference 2025, and the Emergency Services Show at the NEC 2025.

Future plans

On the ground, OHOP posters have been put up in a variety of healthcare settings. These range from community pharmacies, opticians, and GP practices, to hospital wards, emergency departments, and waiting rooms. Dr Lee has ambitious plans for the next phase of the website. “The aim is to reach 20,000 to 30,000 users by this time next year,” he said. Plans are underway to create specialty-specific summary posters.

Climate and health

These will be short, accessible resources that make it easier to learn about climate and health topics, particularly for people with limited time or digital access. OHOP will also continue to expand its specialty pages, build new collaborations, and boost its social media and conference presence. Dr Lee said: “If you’re already supporting Our Health, Our Planet, thank you. Your involvement is making a real impact.” DAUK committee members are all volunteers and campaign on issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Improve health

It has been submitted to the new Environment Secretary, Emma Reynolds, and Defra Minister, Dame Angela Eagle. They are urged to use the Government’s upcoming food strategy to champion plant-rich diets. Dr Lee said: “People in the UK are not eating enough plant-based foods – in particular, vegetables, pulses, legumes, fruit, nuts, seeds and wholegrains. “The evidence is unequivocal that public health will improve if we can secure a transition towards more plant-rich diets. “That dietary transition can reduce the burden of disease and ease pressure on the NHS.

Food security

“Such a transition offers the potential to work with British farmers to enhance food security in the UK through promoting locally grown, plant-based products, something ever more important in a changing climate. “The Government has everything to gain by taking ambitious action.” Liam Lysaght, is campaigns officer at Foodrise, a charity aiming to transform the food system for climate, nature, and justice He said: “The government has highlighted the need to break the cycle of intensive animal agriculture in the UK, and produce a genuine Good Food Cycle.

Plant-rich diet

“This paper shows widespread agreement from health, environment, and food professionals that we can achieve those goals with practical, integrated, policies to promote more plant-rich diets. “It’s a perfect cheat sheet for the new ministers at Defra.” Read the policy paper. DAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Bottom trawling

Earlier this year, the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) wrote an open letter to the Government calling for a ban. The letter set out links between human health and bottom trawling. The Environmental Audit Committee recommended ministers push ahead with a ban in its report Governing the marine environment, A few days after the report was published in June, the Government announced it would introduce a ban. However, in its response to the Commons committee’s report, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said it is not the Government’s policy to introduce whole-site bans on bottom towed fishing gear in marine protected areas.

High Seas Treaty

But the Government has announced it will introduce a bill it claims will help protect two-thirds of the world’s oceans. The Government said the bill will ratify the so-called High Seas Treaty, signed in 2023. It will safeguard marine ecosystems and protect the ocean as a source of food and oxygen. Dr Lee said: “DAUK is pleased the UK has joined 56 other countries in ratifying the High Seas Treaty. “However, we remain concerned the Government is avoiding an outright bottom trawling ban in all UK marine protected areas. “Trawling is an environmentally destructive practice, indiscriminately catching and killing everything in it’s track.

Blanket ban

“We urge the UK Government to support the recommendations from experts in the field, such as Marine Conservation Society and Oceana UK, and enact a blanket ban on all trawling activity in all marine protected areas. “Doing so would help restore UK fish stocks and marine biodiversity. It would enhance our marine carbon capture potential, and work towards the nature restoration that we desperately need to tackle the climate and nature crises.” Toby Perkins MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, repeated the committee’s call for a complete ban on bottom trawling in offshore marine protected areas. “Bottom trawling is a destructive practice,” he said. “We hugely welcome the Government moving forward with banning it in more protected areas of our oceans.

Marine protected areas

“However, the committee is disappointed the Government has not committed to wider bans within marine protected areas which risk undermining the integrity of marine protected areas.” DAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Picture credit: Lawrence Hookham on Unsplash

Dr Matt Lee said patients and staff suffer in high temperatures, such as those being experienced in the UK during the latest heatwave.

Climate change

Speaking to the i paper, Dr Lee warned that climate change heatwaves are dangerous and ‘increase workloads for the NHS’.

He said that a lack of cooling equipment in hospitals is also putting patients’ safety at risk during procedures.

Dr Lee said: “With more frequent heatwaves due to man-made climate change, the NHS must prepare for an annual increase in summer pressures in addition to the winter ones.”

He added: “Hospital infrastructure is wholly ill-equipped to deal with heatwaves.

NHS pressures

“Patients and staff suffer in high temperatures, exacerbated by lack of cooling mechanisms and heat-producing equipment.

“Patients’ wound dressings may become less adhesive. IV cannulas may fall out due to increased sweating. Let alone the increased risks of pressure sores, dehydration and electrolyte imbalances in already unstable patients.”

Read the article in full.

Visit the website Our Health, Our Planet which has been produced by DAUK and is full of information aimed at keeping people safe in a changing climate and during extreme weather events.

DAUK is run by frontline doctors for frontline doctors. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Climate change

Dr Lee said: “Today’s report from the Met office highlights the dire climatic situation we are now in. “Severe heatwaves and flash floods are a consequence of successive failures of governments to take action against climate change, and due to the fossil fuel industry’s repeated misinformation campaigns. “We must not accept these catastrophic changes in our weather as the new normal. Doing so would encourage such environmentally harmful industries and politicians to advocate for business as usual.

Health priority

“It is clear that tackling climate change has to be the number one priority for politicians. We healthcare professionals, as trusted public figures, must be vocal in advocating for action for the sake of our patients and combat misinformation from fossil fuel lobbyists and climate denialist politicians. “Tackling climate change brings multiple health and economic benefits and we urge the Government and Department of Health to increase their ambition, accelerate decarbonisation and nature restoration for climate change mitigation and adaptation.” Visit the website Our Health, Our Planet which has been produced by DAUK and is full of information aimed at keeping people safe in a changing climate and during extreme weather events. The Met Office’s latest assessment of the UK’s climate shows how baselines are shifting, records are becoming more frequent, and that temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the norm. The State of the UK Climate report, published by Wiley in the Royal Meteorological Society’s ‘International Journal of Climatology’, provides insight into the UK’s changing climate.

Temperature extremes

The report highlights how the UK’s climate has warmed steadily from the 1980s onwards, albeit with individual cooler years, with the greatest implications from the increasing frequency and intensity of daily temperature extremes. Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said: “The report draws particular attention to the last decade that clearly shows how quickly our climate is evolving to inform policy, resilience planning, and adaptation. “Perhaps most striking is the growing impact of extremes. While long-term averages are shifting, it is the extreme heat, intense rainfall and droughts that are having the most immediate and dramatic effects on people and nature.

Call to action

“This report is not just a record of change, but a call to action.” Read more on the Met Office’s report.

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The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has joined healthcare professionals and environmental experts in raising concerns about the make up of the National Food Strategy Advisory Board.

The letter says the board is ‘heavily weighted’ with representatives from food and agribusiness industries.

It says the board ‘lacks sufficient voices from public health, nutrition, climate, environment science, and resource management communities’.

UK Food Strategy

The letter has been sent to Daniel Zeichner, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

It asks that ‘immediate steps’ are taken to ‘ensure that health and environmental considerations are placed at the heart of the UK’s National Food Strategy’.

Read the letter in full below.

Dear Mr Daniel Zeichner, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Subject: Concerns Regarding Representation on the National Food Strategy Advisory Board

As healthcare professionals and environmental experts committed to the well-being of the public and the sustainability of our planet, we feel compelled to express our deep concern regarding the recent announcement of the new National Food Strategy Advisory Board.

While we acknowledge the importance of involving a range of stakeholders in shaping the UK’s food policy, it is profoundly troubling to see that the composition of the board is heavily weighted with representatives from the food and agribusiness industries, while lacking sufficient voices from public health, nutrition, climate and environmental science and resource management communities.

Of the panel’s 11 independent members (i.e. excluding the minister and officials), eight are from the food industry. Just one farmer is included – an intensive pig farmer -, and one expert in nutrition (Prof Susan Jebb). Among the food industry figures are Tim Smith, chairman of Cranswick, a company whose controversial plans for a factory farm in Norfolk housing 14,000 pigs and 700,000 chickens are expected to be rejected by the local council. More than 12,000 objections and a 43,000-signature petition have been submitted in opposition to the plan.

The decisions made by this board will have far-reaching consequences—not only for the food system itself but for the health of the nation and the future of our environment. Diet-related diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, continue to place an enormous burden on our healthcare system and economy. At the same time, the food system is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, with significant implications for planetary health and future generations.

A National Food Strategy must reflect these realities. Without strong, independent expertise there is a significant risk that the strategy will prioritise short-term industry interests over long-term public health and environmental sustainability, negatively impacting food security and resilience and continuing to widen the inequity in access and affordability of healthy, nutritious food. 

We urge DEFRA to:

1. Reconsider the current makeup of the National Food Strategy Advisory Board.
2. Ensure balanced representation by including independent public health experts, dietitians, healthcare professionals, environmental scientists, farmers and climate policy specialists.
3. Commit to transparency in how board members are selected and how decisions are made.

As healthcare professionals and environmental experts, we stand ready to contribute constructively to this process. We respectfully ask that you take immediate steps to address this imbalance and ensure that health and environmental considerations are placed at the heart of the UK’s National Food Strategy.

Yours sincerely,

UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, 

Greener Practice,

Doctors Association UK (DAUK),

Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, 

Medact,

Parents for Future,

The Climate Psychology Alliance, 

British Society of Haematology, 

British Society of Lifestyle Medicine, 

XR Psychologists, 

Health for Extinction Rebellion, 

Scientists for Extinction Rebellion,

Extinction Rebellion Educators 

Feedback Global, 

Psychiatry Declares, 

The Climate and Health Scorecard Initiative,

Pharmacy Declares.

Support our work by becoming a member or donating to our Go Fund Me.

Our Health, Our Planet is full of information aimed at keeping people safe during extreme weather events.

It is the ultimate guide to the relationship between climate change and human health, particularly focussing on the health effects to the UK population. Dr Matt Lee, sustainability lead for the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is the driving force behind the website.

He recently urged healthcare professionals to ‘be at the forefront of climate action’ in an editorial in the Future Healthcare Journal.

Dr Lee, who is also the deputy special adviser on climate change and healthcare sustainability to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), joined with Mark Harber, special adviser on climate change and healthcare sustainability to the RCP, for the editorial.

It was titled The climate crisis is a global health emergency: A call to arms.

“As physicians, we must understand that climate change is a health and humanitarian crisis that will impact most heavily on the poor and disposed, but very rapidly on all of us on a scale never seen before,” they said.

The authors added: “For the sake of our patients, healthcare professionals must be at the forefront of tackling climate change, demonstrating leadership through radical, systemic climate action to accelerate the decarbonisation process of the NHS, the wider UK, and influence a global transition to a safer, liveable future.”

Read The climate crisis is a global health emergency: A call to arms.

Support our work by becoming a member or donating to our Go Fund Me.

Picture credit by Li-An Lim on Unsplash