Climate change – the biggest global health threat of the 21st century On the 27-29 August, the first ever global conference on health and climate takes place at World Health Organisation’s (WHO) headquarters in Geneva. The conference is aimed to inform on the negative effects of climate change to human health, as is already causing tens of thousands of deaths every year due to shifting patterns of disease, extreme weather events, such as heat-waves and floods, as well as due to the degradation of water supplies, sanitation, and impacts on agriculture. Furthermore, climate change which closely coupled with air pollution, only in 2012 was responsible for 7 million deaths worldwide (1 in 8 person on Earth die from polluted air!). It is estimated that direct damage to health from climate change is expected to cost the world US$ 2-4 billion a year by 2030. Based on these overwhelming facts, the WHO calls countries for stronger preventive actions. For example, changes in energy and transport policies could save millions of lives annually from diseases caused by high levels of air pollution. The conference will be followed by the careful consideration of health and climate issues during the upcoming UN Climate Summit in September 2014, and then ultimate global climate agreement should be reached during the UN meeting in Paris 2015. We are glad that the awareness on health’s link with climate and air pollution is growing, and we hope that it will soon lead to the better policies on air pollution both in Europe and worldwide. Meanwhile, we ask you to take an action! Let your national policy-makers know on how air pollution affects your health and what they can do to protect you from it: bit.ly/1q4b8tF. There are also more extravagant ways to reduce air pollution and climate change - watch the video below! For more information on WHO Conference, please visit: bit.ly/XRJt4H
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:09:51 +0000
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