Giving cities a health boost to help mitigate climate change

In New York City, when the sun shines the temperature rises—disproportionately. Its densely packed streets and buildings create an urban heat island, a phenomenon that traps heat to make inland cities as much as 9.7°F (5°C) hotter than surrounding areas. And switching on the air-conditioning is not a viable solution: Shifting hot air from inside to outside further intensifies the heat on the streets. It’s a challenge shared by most cities, and one that will likely worsen with climate change.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, we have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record and there is no sign of respite. Unchecked, climate change will continue to impact our planet—and our health. Rising temperatures are linked to a rise in non-communicable diseases, such as strokes and heart disease; mosquitoes carrying malaria are spreading further afield; outbreaks of cholera and dysentery become more likely with increased flooding; and heatwaves exacerbate the effects of air pollution, itself partly attributed to burning fossil fuels, causing respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchitis.

This is the climate-driven health threat for which the world must prepare, and nowhere will it be felt more acutely than in our cities. Home to over half the world’s population and expected to contain 70 percent of all people by 2050, cities are on the frontline of where climate and health collide. By 2030, urban mortality from heat is projected to rise 45 percent, compared to 2021 figures; heat stress and air pollution mortality by more than 20 percent—a combined burden exceeding all cancers. Thankfully, there are solutions.

While tackling climate change remains the ultimate goal, there are ways we can manage and mitigate its health threat to our cities through simple, low-cost schemes. Bupa believes that positive preventative action is key: Reducing the direct impact of climate change on people’s health and improving baseline health to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.

 This is what motivated Bupa to join forces through a new global partnership with the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force. This international coalition of companies and academics is committed to strengthening urban resilience through public health and prevention. Its first report, The Case for Action: The Power of Prevention to Support Health in a Changing Climate, highlights how low-cost, high-impact measures delivered through collaboration between health providers, city leaders, and businesses could transform entire systems—and save 725,000 lives a year. Here’s how.

Keeping a city’s air cooler and cleaner protects residents from some of the most direct effects of climate change—heat and air-pollution. Urban greening, the addition of green spaces from parks to green walls, does both. Trees and plants absorb solar radiation and release water vapor that cools the air. They also absorb some pollutants and release oxygen, improving air quality.

 Covering roofs in light-colored paint or reflective material means they absorb less sunlight, keeping building temperatures down and helping to cool whole districts. And city schemes to increase active transport, like walking and cycling, eases air pollution and temperatures by cutting tailpipe emissions from car traffic. These simple measures could reduce related deaths by as much as 13 percent.

Active transport also helps improve people’s baseline health—and that’s crucial. Because the healthier we can keep a city’s citizens, the better equipped they are to resist the health impacts of climate change from heat stress to disease. A healthier population also eases pressure on city healthcare systems, giving them more capacity to handle climate change illnesses and emergencies. This makes preventative health measures crucial.

At a fundamental level, improvements in urban water, sanitation, and hygiene are essential for preventing infection and illness. As cities continue to grow, often outstripping available infrastructure, some basic low-tech solutions could save 57,000 deaths a year by 2030. Along with improving urban sewage and waste removal, ensuring the quality of a city’s water supply is critical. Water filtration devices, such as modest ceramic filters, help remove dangerous bacteria from the water people use to drink, cook, wash, and cool down, and could prevent a further 109,000 deaths a year by 2030.

Beyond this, residents need to be educated, encouraged, and enabled to look after their health. Cities are often associated with less healthy lifestyles. It’s easier to be more sedentary, eat less healthily, and it’s often easier to access alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs, too. But building better health habits can also be easier in cities—urban planners can boost active transport and health professionals can reach more people when providing access to health care, including preventative measures such as screening and vaccination programs. These build a city’s baseline health, making it more resilient to the health challenges that climate change brings, and perhaps preventing as many as 131,000 deaths a year.

And when extreme weather events happen, cities can respond better when their communities are both healthy and prepared. Awareness campaigns, early warning systems, and strong response plans help citizens and emergency services to respond more effectively to the health threats posed by heatwaves and flooding—even promoting preventative actions from shoring river defenses to simply staying out of the sun.

Positive preventative measures like these can help prepare the world’s cities for the health challenges that climate change could bring, and build on Bupa’s ongoing work with partners around the world in developing scalable solutions to improve urban living.

“By reimagining cities with well-being at their core, and working with partners, we can help people stay healthier for longer, reduce health inequalities, and build healthcare systems that are both resilient and sustainable," says Iñaki Ereño, Bupa’s CEO.

Healthy Cities is Bupa’s global program to inspire city-dwellers to lead healthier lives, while regenerating urban spaces through community partnerships—including wetlands restoration, reforestation, tree planting, and coastal regeneration in 68 cities around the world. And Bupa’s partnership with the Norman Foster Foundation is helping to train the next generation of urban leaders to design healthier and more environmentally conscious cities. While tackling climate change is still the priority, with the effects of intensifying weather patterns already being felt, preparing to mitigate the health impacts is an essential precaution. And it’s one that the world’s cities can achieve, turning a challenge into an opportunity to build healthier, more resilient communities.  

Find out more about Bupa's work here.