Aligning climate and health goals in cities from a sustainability perspective

This online event was organised under the umbrella of the UCL Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals Research Accelerator.

Climate change represents a formidable challenge to cities around the world with profound implications for almost every area of policy and urban activity. It is impacting millions of people’s health by changing weather patterns, affecting food and water supplies and air quality, as well as the nature of disease and society as we knew it. Hence, the benefits and trade-offs of aligning climate and health goals in the city are increasingly explored by academics and policymakers alike, with emerging evidence showing that climate and health policy goals not only can contradict or compete against each other when a narrow approach is taken, but also can undermine other policy and/or wider sustainability goals such as equality, justice and prosperity for all. The event looks at these issues and more and discusses how the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework can offer an integrated, coherent and holistic approach to align specific goals in cities, in this case climate change and health, while acknowledging connections with others.