About HEARTH
National Hub on Net Zero, Health and Extreme Heat
The UK urgently needs to deliver vital climate, health and equity actions which affect homes of different tenures and multifunctional residential environments, including care settings, hospitals and prisons.
The need for effective delivery that achieves net zero, maximises co-benefits and minimises unintended consequences for vulnerable communities in these settings is the overarching challenge that the Hub will address.
Our hub is designed to address the ‘Extreme weather’ challenge area, interpreted here as heat extremes and co-occurring events (flooding, drought, wildfires, air quality).
Our Vision
Our vision for HEARTH is to co-design and undertake high-quality, solutions-focused research with key stakeholders to understand the full range of health impacts associated with net zero targets and climate adaptation in the context of extreme heat in vulnerable settings (homes, care settings, prisons and hospitals). These settings host vulnerable population groups experiencing disproportionate extreme heat impacts and concurrently represent important opportunities for greater net zero actions. Comprehensive research and evidence is needed to address these challenges.
Our transdisciplinary research expertise and extensive project partners team working with vulnerable communities/settings mean that we are uniquely placed to deliver the policy-based evidence needed for a successful net zero transition, and a healthy and climate resilient UK.
HEARTH is underpinned by the three guiding principles of:
(1) knowledge co-production,
(2) environmental sustainability, and
(3) equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), which are inextricably linked to the Hub’s success and legacy.
Participatory methods and a systems approach are adopted to characterise policies relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation and identify opportunities for maximising health benefits and minimising unintended consequences. Equity and justice issues are at the heart of realising the health co-benefits of net zero; the inclusion of diverse perspectives is critical for delivering sustainable solutions. These principles will be applied to meetings; stakeholder workshops/roundtables; communication; working groups; recruitment; flexible fund administration; externally facing training, and academic and career development in accordance with the UK Researcher Development Concordat.