On July 16th and 17th of 2025, the Physiological Society (of the United Kingdom) put on the Global Climate and Health Summit. The UBC CSS and School of Kinesiology was well represented with two UBC KIN PhD alumnae (Drs. Luisa Giles and CSS Associate Sarah Koch) giving keynote presentations, and CSS Associate Dr. Michael Koehle acting as the Air Pollution Theme lead for the conference!
This was a first-of-its-kind international conference that sought to bring together participants from all corners of the globe with diverse backgrounds – to meet and work together on developing concrete actions to combat the health implications of climate change. It was different from the typical academic conference where researchers convene to present their data to each other. Specifically, the conference brought together policymakers, climate experts, and researchers with expertise in three particular streams. The chosen streams for this conference were heat, nutrition, and air pollution.
Since it was hosted by the Physiological Society, a key focus was examining the physiological and health impacts of each of these climate change factors. The heat strand focus was on occupational heat exposure and reducing the health risks to workers exposed to extreme temperatures. The nutrition strand focused mostly on the shift towards plant-based sources of nutrition, in an effort to mitigate the rise in global temperature through reduced production of greenhouse gases. And, finally, the air pollution strand had a focus on the air pollution inputs and outputs of climate change and how they affected health. The entire conference had a focus on climate justice and looking for equitable solutions to these challenges. The steering group tried their best to bring as many voices to the table, especially from the Global South. The conference was free to all attendees, although there was an application process in order to be selected.
With their focus on action, there was also a significant contribution from politicians from the municipal to international level, as well as leaders from prominent international non-governmental organizations. As part of the conference, the steering group also took part in a working dinner at the House of Lords with MPs and Lords, as well as government ministers. The focus of this dinner was developing strategies to take action within the British context.
The conference organizers are committed to ongoing policy work and have created a small impact sub-group to help drive follow-up activity based on the consensus statement.