Lawyers Are Responsible’s mission statement is that it aims to align the UK legal system with planetary conditions that are liveable for current and future generations by: (i) delegitimising (whether through cultural, legal or regulatory means) legal and judicial support for acts which, according to the best available science, jeopardise the conditions which make the planet liveable; and (ii) legitimising the acts of those who peacefully resist such conduct.
In line with the second limb of their mission statement, Lawyers Are Responsible commissioned a Counsel’s Opinion from Tom Cross KC and Lucy Jones of 11KBW.
Climate Change as a Public Health Emergency
The climate and ecological emergency is a public health emergency. The impacts of climate change are accelerating, with record global temperatures, unprecedented Antarctic Sea ice loss, record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, and severe wildfires and floods across the globe. In light of these facts, the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation said in July 2023,
“The extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate – is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies. This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible.” [1]
UNICEF reported in August 2024 that 1 in 5 children – almost half a billion – were living in areas experiencing at least double the number of extremely hot days as their grandparents 60 years ago [2]. Heat stress is the leading cause of weather-related deaths [3].
Fossil fuel pollution is also a public health emergency: in June 2025 the Royal College of Physicians issued a report linking air pollution to diseases affecting every organ of the body, attributing 30,000 deaths and £27 billion in healthcare costs annually in the UK alone to the effects of air pollution [4].
Medical Activism in the Climate Emergency
Medical activism has a long history as a response to ethical conflicts arising from state-sanctioned laws, policies or systemic neglect that threaten public health. Accordingly, as the climate crisis intensifies as a public health emergency, it is to be expected that doctors may become involved in various forms of climate activism, including non-violent civil disobedience. These doctors can be said to act on the basis of their ethical duty to act under the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice as outlined in foundational ethical frameworks such as the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UNESCO, 2005).
As the right to protest has become increasingly restricted in the UK following the Public Order Act 2023 and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, doctors have found themselves subject to increased criminalisation in their activities, such as the prominent cases of Dr Diana Warner, Dr Sarah Benn and Dr Patrick Hart.
In addition, medical professionals have found themselves facing disciplinary action from their regulator in the UK, the General Medical Council, under broad professional standards (e.g. “bringing the profession into disrepute”), based on a particular restrictive understanding of the Medical Act 1983. While the Act was drafted before climate concerns became mainstream, its outdated nature forms the legal backbone under which the GMC’s professional standards, such as the Good Medical Practice, are enforced.
In June 2025, the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to condemn punitive action against those who are carrying out climate activism involving non-violent direct action [5].
Counsel’s Opinion on Activism by Doctors
LAR sought a written Counsel’s Opinion on the General Medical Council’s (‘GMC’) interpretation and application of the Medical Act 1983, particularly regarding the treatment of doctors and other healthcare professionals engaged in non-violent climate-related civil disobedience.
Counsel was asked to consider how the Medical Act 1983 and/or the GMC’s application of it should reflect the moral and legal challenges facing doctors in the age of climate breakdown and ecological collapse.
LAR are making this Counsel’s opinion publicly available, in the hope that it may be of use in stimulating public debate about the role of doctors and other health workers in this unprecedented public health emergency, and that it may be used to support other doctors facing GMC investigations and proceedings before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service both now and in the future.
LAWYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE
19 January 2026
[1] Heatwaves, wildfires mark summer of extremes, 25 July 2023, available at: https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/heatwaves-wildfires-mark-summer-of-extremes
[2] Report available at: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/almost-half-billion-children-live-areas-experiencing-least-twice-many-extremely-hot#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%2C%2014%20August%202024,to%20a%20new%20UNICEF%20analysis.
[3] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-health
[4] Royal College of Physicians: A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution, 19 June 2025 – https://www.rcp.ac.uk/policy-and-campaigns/policy-documents/a-breath-of-fresh-air-responding-to-the-health-challenges-of-modern-air-pollution/
[5] https://thedoctor.bma.org.uk/articles/health-society/bma-condemns-punitive-action-taken-against-climate-activist-doctors/