Both the report and letter are intended to persuade leaders to commit to ambitious climate goals at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26) to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from October 31 to November 12. “Wherever we deliver care, in our hospitals, clinics, and communities around the world, we are already responding to the health harms caused by climate change,” reads the letter from health professionals. “We call on the leaders of every country and their representatives at COP26 to avert the impending health catastrophe by limiting global warming to 1.5°C (2.7° Fahrenheit) and to make human health and equity central to all climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.” According to Yale Climate Connections, 2.7 degrees F is the maximum amount that global average temperatures can increase before the planet suffers truly catastrophic effects. Mary Prunicki, MD, PhD, the director of air pollution and health research at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research in California, stresses that climate change is probably impacting health now more than any other cause. “The higher the temperatures go, the worse it will get,” she says. Even slight rises of a few degrees can damage human health, according to Dr. Prunicki. As the planet gets hotter, she says more elderly suffer from cardiovascular and respiratory issues, and cases of childhood asthma increase. These urgent calls to action by the WHO and health professionals are being put forth as unprecedented extreme weather events and other climate impacts are taking a rising toll on people’s lives and health. Statistics presented by the Thomson Reuters Foundation show that air pollution kills 800 people every hour or 13 every minute, amounting to more than three times the number of people who die each year of malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined. In a statement, the WHO said, “Increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heat waves, storms, and floods, kill thousands and disrupt millions of lives, while threatening healthcare systems and facilities when they are needed most. Changes in weather and climate are threatening food security and driving up food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, while climate impacts are also negatively affecting mental health.” The COP26 report highlights 10 priorities for safeguarding the health of people and the planet:
Commit to a healthy, green, and just recovery from COVID-19.Our health is not negotiable. Place health and social justice at the heart of the UN climate talks.Harness the health benefits of climate action. Prioritize those climate interventions with the largest health-, social-, and economic gains.Build health resilience to climate risks. Build climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health systems and facilities, and support health adaptation and resilience across sectors.Create energy systems that protect and improve climate and health. Guide a just and inclusive transition to renewable energy to save lives from air pollution, particularly from coal combustion. End energy poverty in households and healthcare facilities.Reimagine urban environments, transport, and mobility. Promote sustainable, healthy urban design and transport systems, with improved land use, access to green and blue public space, and priority for walking, cycling, and public transport.Protect and restore nature as the foundation of our health. Protect and restore natural systems, the foundations for healthy lives, sustainable food systems and livelihoods.Promote healthy, sustainable, and resilient food systems. Promote sustainable and resilient food production and more affordable, nutritious diets that deliver on both climate and health outcomes.Finance a healthier, fairer, and greener future to save lives. Transition toward a well-being economy.Listen to the health community and prescribe urgent climate action. Mobilize and support the health community on climate action.
In a similar effort last month, more than 200 prominent medical journals — including the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the Lancet, and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) — banded together in issuing an emergency call to action to address climate change. “It has never been clearer that the climate crisis is one of the most urgent health emergencies we all face,” said Dr. María Neira, the WHO’s director of environment, climate change, and health, in a press release. “Bringing down air pollution to WHO guideline levels, for example, would reduce the total number of global deaths from air pollution by 80 percent while dramatically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. A shift to more nutritious, plant-based diets in line with WHO recommendations, as another example, could reduce global emissions significantly, ensure more resilient food systems, and avoid up to 5.1 million diet-related deaths a year by 2050.”
