COP24 Climate and Health Summit To Address Greatest Threat of 21st Century
Katowice, 5 December 2018:- Global health leaders and policymakers will gather in Katowice during COP24 this Saturday to address the need for urgent, health-focused action, engagement and collaboration, in the face of the greatest health threat of the 21st century: climate change.
The half-day Global Climate and Health Summit is hosted by the World Health Organization, along with the Global Climate and Health Alliance, the European Committee of the Regions, and the Pro Silesia Association. The speakers, who include Mr. Marco Dus, climate finance rapporteur of the European Committee of the Regions, Dr. Maria Guera of Médecins Sans Frontières, and Dr. Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of the World Health Organization, will explore how leading health organizations are taking action to address climate change, the role climate finance can have in realizing the health cost-savings of climate action, and the latest Lancet Countdown report. The full summit programme is available here.
"Climate change is a public health emergency that is already affecting the health of millions of people, and we're nearly out of time to respond", said Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, a international coalition of health and development organisations and summit co-host. "The Global Climate and Health Summit brings together health leaders, policy makers, and others from the international community to grapple with how focusing on health can generate global support for climate action, driving forward the ambitious policies essential to protecting health."
"Recent reports have diagnosed the health crisis in no uncertain terms, including the IPCC 1.5 report, the US National Climate Assessment, and the Lancet Countdown report. They all agree: climate change is here, it's now, and it affects every one of us. Without aggressive action by national governments to drive down carbon emissions, climate change will quickly outstrip any ability to adapt sufficiently to protect people's health", continued Miller.
The summit is expected to amplify the Call to Action on Climate and Health, which outlines a set of ten priority policy actions to advance ambitious progress towards climate and health goals, and the COP24 Special Report on Health and Climate Change, developed by the World Health Organization at the request of the COP23 president the Hon PM Bainimarama, with recommendations to build health into the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement.
"The World Health Organization has said that the seven million deaths per year from air pollution are completely unacceptable. The connection with climate change? The use of coal, oil and gas that is a key driver of climate change also produces air pollution. Globally, the health savings from reduced air pollution alone would offset the costs of mitigation twice over", said Miller.
"If nations take the bold and decisive action at this year's climate negotiations that is required to treat this global health emergency, they will have the health community around the world behind them," said Miller.
Organizations representing over five million health professionals and 1,700 hospitals have signed onto the Call to Action. "People care about their health and the health of their children. Protecting public health can be a powerful motivator to support the needed policies."
"Our future is in our hands, and in the hands of our national governments" concluded Miller. "The decisions made at this COP regarding how the Paris Agreement is implemented will, to use words from the recent Lancet Countdown report, "shape the health of nations for centuries to come".
About the Global Climate and Health Summit, Katowice, Poland
On 8th December, 2018 the World Health Organization, together with the Global Climate and Health Alliance, the European Committee of the Regions, and the Pro Silesia Association, will host a half-day Summit on climate change and health, alongside the UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Katowice.
The annual Health Summit serves as a key anchoring event for advancing health-focused action, engagement and collaboration to address climate change. The Summit will also further the Call to Action on Climate and Health which outlines a set of ten priority policy actions for health leadership to advance ambitious progress towards climate and health goals. Read and join the Call to Action.
View Summit Programme: Summit Programme
Date: Saturday, 8 December 2018
Time: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, reception to follow 5:00-6:00
Place: University of Silesia Rectorate, Bankowa 12 Street, Katowice, Poland
Registration required, deadline Wednesday 5th December: COP24 Health Summit Registration
Press registration open till 1500 Friday 7th December: COP24 Health Summit Press Registration (Please indicate that you are press)
Follow on Twitter: The Global Climate and Health Alliance will be tweeting from the summit on @GCHAlliance, and participants are welcome to join us in using the hashtag #ClimateHealthSummit
Languages: English and Polish translation
The Summit will be part of a COP24 Day of Climate and Health at the University of Silesia venue, with a morning program mounted by the Health and Environment Alliance.
In the morning, health representatives from Poland and across the world will debate Climate change and health – which role for the health sector in Poland?
The health threats of climate change are increasingly being discussed, especially following the extreme weather events this summer, with heatwaves in Poland and all over Europe. As many experts warn, climate change is the biggest threat to health of the 21st century. At the same time, tackling climate change can also bring huge boosts to health. Doctors and the health sector have a unique role to play, not only in making sure that health services are prepared to respond to the health impacts, but also in providing leadership for which measures to prioritize that will be a win-win for our health and the climate.
The morning conference is organised by HEAL, in collaboration with the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), Pro Silesia Association and the Polish Climate Coalition.
Agenda: Climate & Health in Poland Agenda
Registration required, deadline Wednesday 5th December: Climate & Health in Poland registration
Climate and Health Summit Hosts:
- World Health Organization
- Global Climate and Health Alliance
- European Committee of the Regions
- Pro Silesia Association
Organizing Partners:
- ISBEM (Euro Mediterranean Scientific Biomedical Institute)
- Health and Environment Alliance
Partners:
- Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
- Climate and Health Alliance (Australia)
- Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland
- Health Care Without Harm
- International Federation of Environmental Health
- International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
- National Environmental Health Association (USA)
- Regional Institute for Health, Medicine and Research (India)
- The Royal Australasian College of Physicians
- UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
ENDS
Notes:
See also Global Climate and Health Alliance Reaction to Lancet Countdown Climate and Health Report (28 November 2018)
Contacts:
Jeni Miller, Executive Director, +1-510-409-2456, [email=jeni.miller@climateandhealthalliance.org]jeni.miller@climateandhealthalliance.org[/email]
Dave Walsh, Media Advisor +34 691 826 764, [email=press@climateandhealthalliance.org]press@climateandhealthalliance.org[/email]
About the Global Climate and Health Alliance
The Global Climate and Health Alliance was formed in Durban in 2011 to tackle climate change and to protect and promote public health.
The Alliance is made up of health and development organisations from around the world united by a shared vision of an equitable, sustainable future. Our vision is a world in which the health impacts of climate change are kept to a minimum, and the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation are maximised.
Specifically, Alliance members work together to:
- Ensure that health impacts are integrated into global, regional, national and local policy responses to climate change so as to reduce them as far as possible, with a particular focus on reducing health inequalities through mitigation and adaptation;
- Encourage and support the health sector to lead by example, in mitigating and adapting to climate change;
- Raise awareness of the health threats posed by climate change and the potential health benefits of well-chosen climate mitigation policies in areas such as energy, transport, food and housing.
Global Climate and Health Alliance
www.climateandhealthalliance.org/
@GCHAlliance
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