May 2021
Welcome to the GCHA newsletter!
From May 24 - June 1st, the world’s health ministers have gathered virtually for the 74th World Health Assembly convened by the World Health Organization (WHO). At a time when COVID-19 continues its ravages in many countries and other countries move increasingly toward re-opening, and meanwhile access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines remains woefully inequitable around the world, quite naturally the pandemic was a central focus of the meeting.
Unfortunately, the concurrent and intersecting health emergency of climate change and environmental degradation has received limited attention. While the WHO included on the agenda its Strategy on Health, Environment and Climate Change, few national health ministries have responded to this agenda point. This lack of engagement represents both a major missed opportunity to align COVID-19 response with progress towards a healthier, more equitable, and genuinely sustainable future, and a short-sightedness that will leave world populations vulnerable to the growing health crisis driven by climate change.
To push for greater attention to climate change from the world’s health ministers inside the meeting, GCHA founding member, the International Federation of Medical Students Associations, presented this statement, calling for: climate-resilient health systems, health to be integrated into national climate commitments and policies and into COVID-19 recovery plans, and a rapid transition to a fossil-fuel free economy. IFMSA Liaison for Public Health, Omnia El Omrani, said: “As an IFMSA delegate to the WHA74, I am concerned about ensuring the commitments of Member States during WHA74 to addressing climate change in their COVID-19 recovery efforts. It is of utmost urgency to scale-up the ambition needed, and targeted policies and practice to strengthen the resilience of health systems to climate change.”
Meanwhile a group of Swiss doctors and medical professionals, representing the local chapters of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, took to the streets to make the same point. Marching from central Geneva to the WHO headquarters on Saturday 29 May, the XR Doctors carried placards elevating WHO’s own messages about the urgency of addressing climate change to safeguard people’s health and well-being. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom and the WHO climate change team welcomed Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, and their message of the critical urgency to tackle climate change to preserve the conditions on earth that make human life possible.
That message has the backing of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, and of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group on Climate and Health which GCHA co-chairs: climate change is a health emergency that requires that we ramp up our action now before our window of opportunity closes. The health of everyone on earth, and the very lives of generations to follow, depend upon it.
|
|
- Members' Blog-
Jess Beagley is a policy expert in health and environmental determinants, climate change and urban health, now a policy analyst with GCHA. She has previously developed projects for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, the NCD Alliance and Women in Global Health. In this blog for the Global Climate and Health Alliance, she outlines how the global health community is pushing climate action as make-or-break National Commitments (NDCs) get decided.
***
If you want to contribute a guest blog for GCHA website and newsletter, you can submit your blog post to: Jeni.Miller@climateandhealthalliance.org and request the Members' blog guidelines. Please provide 2 weeks’ notice before submitting, so that we can plan our editorial calendar and set a publication date for it.
|
|
- News in brief -
- The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released its first-ever full scenario aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5ºC. As with past IEA reports, this scenario needs some fixes but it contains one remarkable, unprecedented breakthrough: it finds that for climate reasons, all new fossil fuel investments and explorations must stop immediately. This means no new expansion of or investment in oil, gas, or coal beyond what is already committed.
- A new short and sharp (6 pages) GCHA brief on climate and health - climate impacts on health, health benefits of climate solutions - provides a fast yet comprehensive overview, with links to key reports for those who want more information to get quickly grounded in the topic.
- G7 environment ministers have agreed that they will deliver climate targets in line with limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C.
- Climate change activists have won a big legal victory against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. In a landmark decision, a Dutch court ruled that the company must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, based on 2019 levels, faster than the company envisaged.
- Doctors put a $820 billion price tag on the annual health impacts of climate change, as outlined in the recently published report “The Costs of Inaction: The Economic Burden of Fossil Fuels and Climate Change on Health in the United States,” by the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, the Medical Consortium on Climate and Health, and the Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action.
- The Climate Resilient Health Systems Initiative under the Adaptation Action Coalition was launched on May 6th, as part of the 12th Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD XII). The Adaptation Action Coalition was founded in January 2021 with the aim to build momentum and accelerate action to adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. GCHA supported the initiative and GCHA Executive Director Jeni Miller spoke at the event, which stepped up with a call for additional commitments to build health systems that are climate resilient and environmentally sustainable.
- Health Care Without Harm, the Race to Zero health care partner, together with the UN COP25 High Level Climate Champion, Gonzalo Muñoz, announced the first group of hospitals and health systems joining the Race to Zero campaign. Close to 40 health care institutions worldwide, collectively representing more than 3,000 health care facilities in 18 countries, have made public commitments to halving emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by no later than 2050 accredited by Race to Zero’s stringent entry criteria.
- The Australian Federal Court delivered a landmark judgement on climate change, as it found the environment minister has a duty of care to young people. The class action case was brought on behalf of all Australian children and teenagers, against Environment Minister Sussan Ley. In the written judgement the court describes climate change as “the greatest intergenerational injustice ever inflicted by one generation of humans upon the next”.
- The briefing “The impact of climate change on mental health and emotional wellbeing: current evidence and implications for policy and practice”, and accompanying animation, shows how climate change is negatively affecting the mental health and emotional well being of people around the world. It proposes a detailed set of recommendations to stimulate greater knowledge, awareness and action for all sectors including policy makers, research institutions and mental health practitioners.
- A new UN report has identified a 40 to 45% reduction in global methane emissions by 2030 (i.e., about 180 million tonnes per year) as the most cost-effective strategy for limiting global warming to 1.5°C quickly. A detailed analysis of the finding is available online by CHASE, the Canadian Health Association for Sustainability and Equity.
- Australian health professionals joined the school strike on May 21 to halt the expansion of natural gas in the country.
- Twelve new climate change indicators and several years of data have been added to the EPA’s indicator suite for the US.
- GCHA, in collaboration with WHO, the WHO Regional Offices, and on behalf of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group on Climate and Health, convened five of six virtual Regional Consultations, which brought together leading representatives from health professional organizations, health NGOs/civil society, and health ministries to identify the most pressing health impacts of climate change in each region, the gaps and challenges in addressing those impacts, and key action recommendations to address those challenges and impacts. The sixth and final consultation will follow this summer.
Learn more about the Regional Consultations, including how to submit a case study on climate and health solutions in your region. Stay tuned for the region-by-region findings of the consultations (due out ~end of June), as well as for ways to engage in the run up to COP26. A big thank you to the many partners who helped organize and support these consultations!
|
NEW MEMBERS
The health community joining GCHA keeps growing!
We are pleased to welcome the following new members:
- International Society for Children's Health and the Environment, https://ische.ca/, @LTM_ISCHE
- Youth Advocacy and Development Network Uganda, http://www.yadnet.org/, @yadnet2030
- My Tree Initiative (Uganda), https://www.facebook.com/MY-TREE-initiative-125019115558666, @mytreeUganda
- Africa Climate and Health Alliance (Africa)
- Sustain Our Abilities (International) , http://sustainourabilities.org/, @OurAbilities
- Justice Development and Peace Centre, Benin (Nigeria), http://www.facebook.com/jdpcbenin, @Beninjdpc
- Infectious Disease Institute (Africa) , https://www.facebook.com/IDIMakerereUniversity/
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Nigeria), https://www.facebook.com/thisisolphi, @operpetualhelp
- Sociedad Chilena de Salud Planetaria (Chile), www.sochisap.org, @sochisap
- Emonyo Yefwe International (Kenya)
GCHA membership is free and is open to health organizations, and to development organizations with a significant focus on health. Learn more about membership.
Check out the GCHA website to see the rest of the amazing organizations that are members.
|
|
|
- Health voices -
“The pandemic will recede. But we will still be left with all the other challenges that we had before, including the climate crisis.” - WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom
“We face a choice: continue down this dead-end path of inaction and soaring health care bills, or make smart investments now in cost-effective solutions that will prevent millions of people in our country — especially the most vulnerable — from suffering injuries, illness, and premature death. The time to act is now." - Vijay Limaye, NDRC climate and health scientist
“Mental health is the unseen impact of climate change at the moment. It is a big problem that is going to affect more and more people in the future, and in particular exacerbate inequality. Taking climate action seems to be very positive for mental health, both on an individual and community scale, but also as a society.” - Emma Lawrance, Imperial College London
"Olympic organisers must take the warnings in this report seriously or face a real risk of competitors collapsing through heat exhaustion. In a sporting context, a hot and/or humid environment can represent a risk to the performance and health of spectators, officials and athletes. From sunburn, through cognitive impairment, to heat exhaustion or collapse from heat stroke, all facets of a sporting event -- and all those involved -- can be adversely affected." - Mike Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the Extreme Environments Laboratory, School of Sport, Health & Exercise Science at the UK's University of Portsmouth
“With rising awareness of the health impacts of climate change & the health benefits of action to address climate change, we need to do everything we can to keep global average temperatures from rising above 1.5oC on pre-industrial levels.” Dr. Yannish Naik, interim director, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
“Climate change is the greatest health emergency humanity has faced, caused directly and indirectly by fossil fuels, bringing ecosystem collapse, extreme heat and lost harvests. Many countries in the developed world are divesting reliance on fossil fuels by increasing use of clean renewable energy. Reliance on gas is a retrograde step, which further risks health and environmental degradation to water, soil and air. Australia must follow responsible global leadership towards zero emissions with clean renewable energy, or be left behind.” - Cr Lynne Saville, Nurse and Coordinator of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War NSW
|
|
- Mark your diary -
- 3 June - The Future of Global Health is Planetary Health (online webinar).
COVID-19 has exposed major gaps in our ability to prepare for, prevent, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. As world leaders pledge to fight future outbreaks together, discussions around preparedness engage experts from the animal, environmental, climate, and human health sectors to discuss the collaborative approach it will take to prevent the next pandemic. More information and registration.
- 4 June - Healthy Food Systems: For People, Planet, and Prosperity (online dialogue) The COVID-19 pandemic not only brought on healthcare and economic crises, it has also radically exacerbated the world’s ongoing food security, nutrition, and climate crises. The World Health Organization, EAT, and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food are bringing together experts from across the health and food communities to explore how a new narrative about food systems can be used to stimulate action and political commitments. More information; agenda and registration.
- 16 June - Cambio Climatico y Estilo de Vida Saludable (GCHA & Sochimev online webinar, Spanish and Portuguese)
Save the Date: November 6-7 - Global Climate and Health Conference on the margins of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, convened by the World Health Organization, GCHA, the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, and other health partners.
*** The GCHA newsletter is now available in Spanish ***
Subscribe here if you wish to receive the Spanish version (scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose your option, you’ll need to unsubscribe from the English version if you don’t wish to receive both).
|
|
- Get more involved -
Sign up for the Climate & Health Info List to exchange information amongst the health community about events, major announcements, resources and publications related to climate change and environmental health.
Health professionals are invited to sign up as a Climate and Health Champion, to receive advocacy alerts, policy & advocacy information, and tools, and to share updates about your advocacy efforts.
Health organizations are invited to become members of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
Support what we do! GCHA works hard to elevate the voice of health professionals in national and international decision making on climate change, to protect our common future.
|
|
|
|
