Kolkata, Dec 2 Climate change is the greatest health challenge of the 21st century, and threatens all aspects of the society in which we live. The severity of the impacts of climate change on human health is increasingly clear, and further delay in action will increase the risks.
Climate change threatens to undermine over half a century of global improvements in health achieved with dedicated, targeted action by policy-makers and the health community. This situation is in direct contravention of government commitments to support progressive realization of the human right to health for all.
The public health community has rapidly increased its engagement on climate change and health in recent years, providing better understanding of the links between climate change and health, raising awareness of the significant health threats, offering solutions to avoid the worst impacts and assessing the health benefits of climate actions, including the degree to which these will offset the costs of mitigation.
This work now involves a large community of organizations, including United Nations agencies, academia, all levels of government and nongovernmental organizations, which are working together to meet the commitments made by governments during the climate change negotiations within the UNFCCC and international negotiations at the World Health Assembly.
Global Climate and Health Summit will take place during COP25 in Madrid, Spain.
At UN Climate Conference COP25, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA) will convene a one-day summit on climate and health. This will be the latest in the series of summits for health civil society that have been held since COP 17 in Durban.
