IPCC Mitigation Climate Report: Health And Equity Must Be Central To Climate Policy

Global, 5 April 2022:- Reacting to the publication of the Mitigation of Climate Change report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which proposes drastic action taken this decade as essential for providing humanity with a chance to limit overall global warming to within Paris Agreement targets, Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, an international coalition of health professional and health civil society organizations, said [1]:

“This week's IPCC report could not be more explicit: leaders of all nations must rapidly phase out fossil fuels and transition to clean, renewable energy. Across every sector, governments and businesses must reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The devastating war in Ukraine and its global repercussions only further highlight the urgent need for this transition and for a vision of how each country - and the global community - can navigate away from activities that warm the climate and put people’s health, well being, and very lives at risk.”

“During his April 4th speech, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterrez made clear that countries that are increasing fossil fuel production are ‘dangerous radicals’ [2]. If we continue to tolerate this radical behaviour that flies in the face of robust, consensus scientific evidence, there is no doubt we would condemn our children, and the generations that follow, to a planet that is close to uninhabitable”.

“However, by putting health and equity at the centre of climate policy making, governments can deliver policies that garner widespread support and maximise returns on investment. Policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also deliver cleaner air and water, healthier diets, more livable cities, and transportation systems designed to benefit the health and wellbeing of people”, continued Miller. 

“A just transition for workers toward industries that harness, for instance, renewable energy, is essential to securing widespread support for the significant changes that are needed worldwide, while wealthy countries must step up to deliver support to low income countries, with financial and technical assistance. Future sustainable development and climate resilience must be goods shared by all.”

“We already have the knowledge, but what is needed now is for people around the world to hold their governments to account by demanding climate action - and for those prime ministers and presidents to summon the courage to step away from business as usual, in favour of people’s health and wellbeing in the future” concluded Miller.

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