Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga

How will climate affect future pandemics? Dilanthi Amaratunga, Huddersfield University.

Video credit: UKRI
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript is available on YouTube.

In the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), we asked our researchers to tell us about their work and the challenges of tackling climate change.

Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga is a Professor of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management at Huddersfield University.

Currently her work is focused on trying to find out how biological disasters, such as COVID-19, are rising due to the impact of the climate, and how this can be managed.

Dilanthi explains that although the pandemic is global, its prevention and preparedness are local.

Dilanthi says:

We will explore how epidemics and pandemics are incorporated within existing early warning systems, accelerating action to tackle the climate crisis, through cooperation between government, businesses, and civil society.

My vision has always been to contribute to the global disaster risk reduction and climate change agenda, with specific emphasis on capacity building and to champion the underrepresentation of women in this key research area.

Last updated: 3 November 2021

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.