Certain actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions and thus reduce climate change can also directly improve human health. These health benefits could partly offset the costs of tackling climate change and challenge the belief that policies to tackle climate change will invariably be socially and economically demanding. IAP for Health has built on work started by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences by publishing a statement re-emphasising the importance of the health co-benefits of policies to mitigate climate change, and stressing the major threat of climate change to health.