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. 2025 May 30:10:14.
doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23431.2. eCollection 2025.

The PAICE project: Integrating health and health equity into UK climate change policy

Michael Davies  1 , Charlie Dearman  2 , Rosemary Green  3 , Andrew Haines  2   3   4 , Clare Heaviside  1 , Filiz Karakas  2 , Sudheer Kumar Kuppili  2 , Susan Michie  5 , James Milner  2 , Gemma Moore  1 , David Osrin  6 , Silvia Pastorino  2 , Giorgos Petrou  1 , Irene Pluchinotta  1 , Charles Simpson  1 , Phil Symonds  1 , Catalina Turcu  7 , Ruth Unstead-Joss  1 , Simon Vakeva-Baird  1 , Sarah Whitmee  3 , Ke Zhou  1 , Nici Zimmermann  1
Affiliations

The PAICE project: Integrating health and health equity into UK climate change policy

Michael Davies et al. Wellcome Open Res. .

Abstract

This paper announces a new initiative - the research project Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE), which aims to investigate the complex systemic connections between climate change action, health and health equity, for translation of evidence into policy and practice in the UK. Using transdisciplinary approaches, PAICE will: (1) co-develop a programme theory and linked monitoring and evaluation plan, (2) work with the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) using system dynamics to analyse national and local policy opportunities, (3) build an integrated model of the effects of these policies on population health, health equity and greenhouse gas emissions, (4) apply the findings to the CCC monitoring framework and GLA policy development, and (5) use the programme theory to help evaluate achievement of PAICE processes and objectives. If successful, PAICE will have helped to establish a systems capability to (i) monitor whether Government plans are on track to deliver their climate targets and associated health impacts and (ii) understand how relevant policy and implementation approaches could be enhanced.

Keywords: climate change action; health and health equity; policy; systems; integration; transdisciplinary research..

Plain language summary

This paper describes the plans for a new initiative – the research project Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE). PAICE aims to investigate the complex interactions between climate change action, health and health equity for translation of evidence into policy and practice in the UK. The World Health Organization defines health equity as “the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups” and addressing this vital issue is a key aspect of PAICE. PAICE is a collaboration between teams of academics at UCL and LSHTM who will work closely with the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to analyse national and local policy opportunities. If successful, PAICE will have helped to establish a capability to (i) monitor whether Government plans are on track to deliver their climate targets and associated health impacts and (ii) understand how relevant policy and implementation approaches could be enhanced.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. PAICE Work Packages (WPs).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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