Assessing the risks from climate change
Climate change is bringing new threats to the environment, human health and food chain safety. Most of our science programme is devoted to monitoring, assessing and delivering evidence-based guidance on these threats.
Our long-term data sets on pest and diseases are being interrogated for new insights into how climate change could influence distribution, virulence and establishment. Modelling of pest or disease distribution forms an important part of our 'pest risk analysis' work for Defra, and feeds directly into prioritisation of threats and management plans for dealing with outbreaks.
Climate change will bring altered patterns of animal and human movements, and increased risk of spreading zoonotic diseases (those transferred from animals to humans). Our wildlife disease specialists are already focusing on where the priorities lie, and identifying activities which increase the risks of exposure to infection.
The global food chain will inevitably be affected by climate change as production patterns shift and as distribution chains adapt to cope with constraints imposed by cutting the 'carbon footprint'. With our international perspective and food safety focus, we will be keeping a close eye on where the major risks to food safety occur.
Our focus is firmly on supporting our customers in collecting evidence of climate change, in assessing impacts, and in predicting future changes. By looking across the whole food chain, from environment to consumer, CSL is uniquely placed to play its part in adapting to the challenges of climate change.