A new study, co-authored by Prof Marco Springmann, Environment and Health Programme Lead at the ECI, outlines how EU climate change mitigation policies could deliver major public health benefits—if properly understood and communicated.
While many EU policies aimed at reducing emissions also have the potential to improve health—through cleaner air, better diets, and more active lifestyles—existing research frameworks often fall short in explaining how these co-benefits can influence policy decisions.
Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, the authors introduce an integrated framework tailored to the EU context. It outlines how different sectors—such as land use, forestry, and health systems—can contribute to climate action, and how specific mitigation measures can drive both environmental and health improvements.
By identifying key levers for change and the actors who can implement them, the framework aims to help researchers and policymakers quantify the health co-benefits of climate action, and use that evidence to boost public and political support for more ambitious climate policies.
Read the study in full in The Lancet Planetary Health: Promoting health through climate change mitigation in Europe