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More than 1000 health professionals and nearly 200 health organizations from around the world – including the World Health Organization – are calling upon governments to lay out a legally binding global plan to phase out fossil fuel use, in order to protect the health of people around the world. Joining the WHO other major signatories include the International Pediatric Association, the World Medical Association, the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, and the World Federation of Public Health Associations.
Despite nice sounding promises at international fora, recent analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency indicates a sobering reality: major economies are sharply increasing support for the production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas, with support for fossil fuels almost doubling in 2021, slowing progress toward international climate goals.
GCHA, together with the World Health Organization and health civil society and academic partners, have been monitoring this trend, and in August filed a joint submission to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake, which will assess progress countries have or haven’t made in implementing the Paris Agreement, and how much countries must increase the ambition of their national climate action plans (the NDCs) in order to limit warming to the targets set in the Paris Agreement
We are well past time for governments to tackle head on the root causes of climate change. As Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said, “The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage”. (continues, click on FIND OUT MORE button below)
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