During the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP23 in 2017, the Prime Minister of Fiji and COP23 President Frank Bainimarama led a call for the World Health Organisation to develop a report on health and climate change to be delivered at COP24.
The report, officially launched at the COP24 in Katowice, Poland, provides recommendations for governments on how to maximize the health benefits of tackling climate change and avoid the worst health impacts of this global challenge. It makes clear why health considerations are critical to the advancement of climate action and outlines key recommendations for policy makers.
Health is an integral part of the UN climate change negotiations. Article 1 of the UNFCCC, defines the “adverse effects of climate change” as changes that have “significant deleterious effects… on human health and welfare.” Further, Article 4.1 (f) mandates that parties conduct “impact assessments, formulated and determined nationally, with a view to minimizing adverse effects on… public health” when implementing mitigation and adaptation interventions, based on the best available science, in a manner that informs climate services and supports decision-making.
Additionally, there is a high-level political commitment to protecting and promoting human health, reflected in the 2015 Paris Agreement and its pre-ambulatory text, which explicitly acknowledges that “Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on… the right to health…”, and recognizes the centrality of “mitigation actions and their co-benefits for adaptation, health and sustainable development” as a key justification for enhanced action prior to 2020. Furthermore, the Paris Agreement states that the objective of the Agreement is to “strengthen the global response to climate change, in the context of sustainable development”, and thereby links the climate change agenda to Agenda 2030 on the Sustainable Development Goals which have a near term perspective for action.
Moreover, under international human rights law, States also have a legally binding obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the human right to health for all persons which requires they take action to prevent foreseeable harms posed by climate change.
Given the above and the growing evidence on the health impacts of climate change, the health co-benefits of climate action (including health benefits of enhanced action on short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane), and the important role that the health sector plays in every country, there is a need to increase the understanding of this dimension of the climate issue so as to best meet the goals of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
Launch of the COP24 report
The COP24 Special Report on Health and Climate Change will be launched at an official side event during COP24, which will showcase the Health and Climate Change report findings and recommendations. It will provide
1) a global state of knowledge on the interconnection between climate change and health issues and
2) an overview of the initiatives and tools through which the public health community at country, regional and global level is currently supporting and scaling-up actions to implement the Paris Agreement, for a healthier and more sustainable society.
Outline of the event at COP24
Moderator: Dr. Maria Neira, Director PHE, World Health Organization
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
- Mr Michal Kurtyka, Secretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for the Precidensy of the Conference of the Parties (COP24), Ministry of Environment Republic of Polan
- Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
- H.E. Luke Daunivalu, High Commission of the Republic of Fiji, Chief Negotiator
- Jemima Vivien Hartshorn, founder of Mums for Lungs