- November COP26 6th Event: Global Conference on Health and Climate Change
- The Global Climate and Health Alliance are are COP26 – contact [email protected] to make contact
Glasgow, November 1, 2021:- World leaders must make health and social equity the beating heart of COP26 negotiations, by taking concerted action to limit global heating to less than 1.5C in line with Paris Climate Agreement and findings of the scientific community, and delivering a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels – beginning with immediate cuts to subsidies, said the Global Climate and Health Alliance today [1].
“People are dying and being harmed now by climate change: the decisions made in these next two weeks will define the health and wellbeing of people all over the world for decades to come”, said Jeni Miller Executive Director at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, made up of health professional organizations, health NGOs, and health and environment alliances from around the world.
“At COP26, national leaders must prioritise health and social equity over politics, profit and unproven technological fixes”, added Miller. “Health and equity must become the lynchpin around which action is taken to reduce global emissions, in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on human health”.
“The global climate crisis is clearly also a growing health crisis and is already having an unprecedented impact on people’s lives and wellbeing worldwide, with devastating heat waves and other extreme weather events causing deaths, and drought driving millions of people in already-vulnerable communities to the brink of famine”, said Miller.
“Current climate commitments have us on the path for temperature rises of between 2.7 and 3.1 degrees Celcius this century. COP26 delegations must work together towards getting emissions in line with the 1.5C limit agreed six years ago in Paris, if we are to prevent catastrophic harm to people’s health and wellbeing”, she added.
“To achieve this, governments must agree to phase out public funding and facilitating of fossil fuels, with high income countries – which bear the responsibility for the bulk of climate warming emissions to date – making the greatest cuts the fastest”.
“High income countries must also deliver the promised US$100B climate finance per year to support lower income countries to address climate change, including funds to help countries protect their people and their health systems from the impacts of climate change we are already seeing, as well as funds to support climate mitigation measures.” [2]
“In addition, every government must commit to building climate resilient, low-carbon, sustainable health systems, while leveraging the unparalleled public funding being invested in Covid-19 recovery packages to support climate action, and reduce social and health inequities, thus averting an even greater threat to health and economies”.
“Countries that actually deliver on commitments, policies, and investments to tackle climate change, and that do so with health & equity explicitly in mind, will reap the greatest health benefits for their populace, and see health cost savings, while doing their part to avert far greater warming. From cleaner air, to secure access to healthy foods, to safer streets and healthier more livable cities — the potential benefits to people’s health and wellbeing in countries that act on climate change are immense”.
In October, more than 500 organisations representing 46 million nurses, doctors and health professionals worldwide – about two thirds of the global health workforce – signed an open letter to the 197 government leaders and national delegations ahead of COP26, warning that the climate crisis is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, and calling on world leaders to deliver on climate action.
“The health community worldwide is calling for action on climate change because we recognize it as a major threat to health, and because climate action presents huge opportunities for health. What we want to see out of COP is a recommitment to the promises made, in service of the “right to health,” in the Paris Agreement. The science is clear: this COP must accelerate climate action, to avert the unfolding climate and health crisis and to deliver a healthier future for all”, concluded Miller.
ENDS
COP26 Event: November 6th Global Conference on Health and Climate Change
Health professionals and leaders from around the world will be attending the Global Health and Climate Conference on November 6th, during the COP26 UN climate change conference.
Provisional agenda: 2021 Global Conference on Health and Climate Change (who.int).
WHO: Keynote speakers include Ms Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders; Ms Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of Wellcome Trust; Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, Jeni Miller, Executive Director of Global Climate and Health Alliance, Professor Tahseen Jafry, Director of GCU’s Centre for Climate Justice, and ministers of health from several vulnerable countries (TBC).
Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor of the British Medical Journal, and Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director of the Environment, Climate Change and Health Department, will moderate a series of conversations with high-level representatives from various sectors – including in energy, transport, nature, food systems, and finance – on the transformational actions needed in order to protect people’s health from climate change.
The Global Conference on Health & Climate Change is organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), in close collaboration with the Glasgow Caledonian University and its Centre for Climate Justice, the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Wellcome Trust.
WHEN: Saturday, 06 November 2021, 9:00-17:30 GMT
WHERE: Glasgow Caledonian University (Cowcaddens Road, G4 0BA) and online via livestream (contact [email protected], [email protected] for details)
REGISTRATION: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-global-conference-on-health-and-climate-change-tickets-174565278447
Contacts:
Dave Walsh, Communications Advisor, Global Climate and Health Alliance, +34 691 826 764 (Europe) – p[email protected] is checked regularly.
Notes:
[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC
https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
Climate experts warn world leaders 1.5C is ‘real science’, not just talking point
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/30/climate-experts-warn-world-leaders-15c-is-real-science-not-just-talking-point
[2] Delivering on the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitmentand Transforming Climate Finance Independent Expert Group On Climate Finance December 2020
https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/100_billion_climate_finance_report.pdf
See also:
Healthy NDCs Scorecard: South Africa Leads Big Emitters on Climate-Health Action Ahead of COP26
https://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/healthy-ndcs-scorecard-south-africa-leads-big-emitters-on-climate-health-action-ahead-of-cop26/
Healthy NDCs: https://climateandhealthalliance.org/initiatives/healthy-ndcs/ndc-scorecards/
October 11: Global health community calls for climate action ahead of COP26 to avert “biggest health threat facing humanity”
https://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/global-health-community-calls-for-climate-action-ahead-of-cop26-to-avert-biggest-health-threat-facing-humanity/
About the Global Climate and Health Alliance
The Global Climate and Health Alliance is the leading global convenor of health professional and health civil society organizations addressing climate change. We are a consortium of health organisations from around the world united by a shared vision of an equitable, sustainable future, in which the health impacts of climate change are minimized, and the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation are maximised.
Find out more: https://climateandhealthalliance.org/about/