The Royal College of GPs has confirmed it is to halt investment in fossil fuels in response to climate risks that ‘threaten to destabilise our National Health Service’.

 
The group, which represents more than 52,000 members and is the largest Medical Royal College in the UK has now decided to disinvest from fossil fuel assets as it seeks to reduce its own emissions impact.

Dr Steve Mowle, Honorary Treasurer for the RCGP. – “We felt that the benefit of our modest investment in fossil fuel companies was outweighed by the negative impact that climate change can have on patients’ health.”

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of th e Royal College of General Practitioner. – “Climate change is a clear risk to the health and wellbeing of our patients – with recent research estimating 50 million predicted years of life lost across Great Britain between 2011 and 2154 if things don’t improve…We already face a seasonal crisis every winter that threatens to destabilise our national health service, but with our summers forecasted to become hotter and hotter, we risk the emergence of a second seasonal crisis, and the NHS will simply be unable to cope.”

Dr Katie Clare, Public Health Doctor and Medact member. – “Heatwaves like we have seen this summer cause hundreds of excess deaths. As climate change leads to such extreme weather events becoming more and more frequent the RCGP’s decision to divest could not be more timely. This sends a strong message that fossil fuel companies that damage our population’s health through air pollution and climate change have no future.”