The Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health has members coming from medicine, national governments and climate NGOs. The independent commission, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), believes that the impacts of our changing climate is a such global health threat that the WHO should declare it ‘a public health emergency of international concern’ (Pheic). Some of the most recent Pheics declared include MPox and Covid.
When interviewed by the Guardian, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, a former prime minister of Iceland who chaired the commission said "[T]he climate crisis may not be a pandemic, but it’s still a public health emergency that threatens humanity’s very health and survival. And if we don’t act more quickly and comprehensively, many millions more people could die or face life-changing illness.”
The commission's chief scientific adviser, Sir Andrew Haines, a professor of environmental change and public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine suggested that the “WHO has already recognised that climate change is a major threat to global health. What we’re asking for is a step further. If we carry on emitting at current rates, that will accelerate the risks to health for both current and future generations including: more people suffering and dying from excess heat, floods and infectious diseases, air pollution from wildfires, more preterm births and more food insecurity.”
In addition to requesting the Pheic declaration, the commission asked for governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels and help combat the spread of disinformation as it relates to climate change.
What do you think? Would this declaration make a difference in how governments at various levels in your country, region or city approach climate change?