The Chief Executive of the Environment Agency Sir James Bevan has made a major speech to coincide with the publication of the EA’s new report, `The State of the Environment: health people and the environment’, which draws together a wide range of research on the impact of the environment on human health. The Report Includes:
- The ways in which the Environment Agency is helping make the country healthier and it highlights the benefits to health of nature based-solutions to climate change
- The benefits to health of nature based-solutions to climate change, such as the Environment Agency’s new Warrington flood defence scheme which protects over 2,000 homes and businesses and will create reed bed habitats, plant trees, open up riverside paths, and improve the views across the river and town
Sir James Bevan said:
- That highlighting that universal access to a healthy natural environment could save the NHS billions of pounds a year
- Investing in a healthy environment is about the smartest thing we can do. It makes medical sense, because it will mean better health for all and less strain on the NHS
- “Levelling up” access to the environment as part of the green recovery from coronavirus will also help level up everything else
