WHO expert: ‘Declaring climate change a global public health emergency would be a turning point’
Air pollution, heat waves and infectious diseases: climate change is a health crisis that requires action now to save millions of lives, warn scientists and former health ministers.
On the eve of the World Health Assembly that opened in Geneva on Monday, a group of leading international experts called for the climate crisis to be declared a global public health emergency, on par with Covid-19 and Ebola. Far from being a future threat, the warming of the Earth’s surface temperature is already affecting human health and safety, the independent pan-European Commission on Climate and Health said in its recommendations to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Classifying the climate crisis as “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) would encourage greater investment, said Robb Butler, the WHO’s special representative for climate and health at its European regional office. He spoke to Le Temps.
Le Temps: Why is the commission making this call now to recognise climate change as a PHEIC?
Robb Butler: It’s pretty clear in the European region that we’ve passed a threshold. We’ve got about 600,000 premature deaths every year alone from air pollution linked to fossil fuel combustion. We also have about 60,000 to 65,000 deaths from heat every year, and the continent is now recorded as being the fastest-warming region on the planet. All of our member states are concerned about climate change, and some member states have even been experiencing disease pattern shifts over the past five years.
It’s not surprising that the commission then asks the WHO to declare this an emergency: they’re looking for an alarm bell to ring. The purpose of a public health emergency of international concern, like the international health regulations (IHR), is not to wait until a catastrophe occurs, but to prevent that worst-case scenario. And that’s why I think the commission has made this very clear call to action in declaring climate change a health emergency.
Does climate change fit with the four criteria of a PHEIC?
Climate change is a risk across all health and disease indicators. It’s definitely a cross-border threat. It’s not an epidemic, and it’s not time-bound. So it doesn’t typically fit into the IHR and PHEIC criteria. But then, how else do we sound the alarm? We can’t make the health argument for climate change, for mitigation or for adaptation in other sectors, unless the health sector itself has declared climate change an emergency.
What actions would states be required to take?
With climate and health action, what we’ve seen to date is that it tends to be everybody’s business, but nobody’s responsibility. Hence, this call to declare a state of emergency, so that measures are taken by states, and they have an official obligation to report on what they are doing. This would be a decisive turning point in terms of action.
It would also be crucial in unlocking financing: previous PHEICs that have been called, for example, polio, have seen huge investment off the back of these declarations. So far, we’ve seen pitiful amounts of investment in climate health action, both nationally and internationally, but we hope global financing will step up.
All PHEICs to date have been caused by a virus. Is the WHO ready for this paradigm shift?
I can’t really answer that: it’s for the director general (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) to pick up this recommendation and to consider that. I think countries will support the fact that the recommendation has been made, even if those likely large emitters and those countries that rely heavily on fossil fuels will be less eager – some €440 billion are invested in subsidising fossil fuels in the European region.
Is there another of the 17 recommendations in the report that you’d like to highlight?
Advocating for city action is very wise: municipalities are largely well-financed, and we’ve seen amazing innovation take place at the city level. For example, introducing more green and blue spaces in cities is linked with low mortality from urban heat. There are very clear, simple solutions that we know are improving health and well-being in our member states. But we need more of a contagion effect for those best and promising practices. So I’m very happy that the commission has recommended more sharing of best and promising practices, and highlighted some of the real champion initiatives that are taking place in the region.
This article was originally published in French in Le Temps. It has been adapted and translated into English by Geneva Solutions. Articles from third-party websites are not licensed under Creative Commons and cannot be republished without the media’s consent.