Global health community gathers in Madrid to feed into COP25 negotiations
Madrid – The Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a one-day Global Climate and Health Summit on 7 December to help generate global action protecting health from a changing global climate and feed into COP25 negotiations (1). GCHA, a coalition of health and development organizations from around the world, calls for health to form an integral component of the work carried out during COP25 in Madrid, Spain (2).
Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance said: “If this year COP focuses on climate action, 2020 must be the year of health action. The Paris agreement enshrined the ‘right to health’ as a core principle guiding action on climate change, for the first time formalizing health as a focus in the UNFCCC processes. The coming months are critical in our collective global response to climate change, the implications for human health are immense.”
Though the challenge is great, policy responses to climate change present an unprecedented opportunity for public health, such as by reducing air pollution which is responsible for 7 million premature deaths annually. While impacts of climate change are increasingly felt worldwide as we have seen in the course of 2019, the movement of health professionals and health organizations addressing climate change around the world is growing.
Speakers at the one-day Global Climate and Health Summit include Maria Neira, Director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department of the World Health Organization; María Luisa Carcedo, Minister of Health, Spain; Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Jeni Miller, Executive Director, Global Climate and Health Alliance. Full programme. —end—
For information:
Media contact: Luisa Colasimone
[email protected] ⎸M. +351 910 678 050 (also Whatsapp) / +32 479 100 067
All sessions open to media – no accreditation required
(1) Global Climate and Health Summit at COP25, from 0900-1730CET on Saturday December 7th 2019 – Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Facultad de Medicina,
Plaza Ramón y Cajal, s/n, Auditorium “Ramón y Cajal”, 2nd floor.
(2) GCHA demands to COP25 and media briefing