The “climate crisis it is a health crisis”, estimated World Health Organization (WHO), expressing sadness that health is not the subject of formal negotiations during the UN Climate Conference (COP) which is being held in Brazil.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis,” said the Secretary-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during a press conference at the headquarters of the international organization in Geneva.
“It is time for health to be a subject of official negotiations and we hope that this will be done at COP31 next year”, pointed out for his part the person in charge of the Environment and Climate Change of the WHO, Rüdiger Kress.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attended last week’s COP30, currently taking place in Belem, Brazil.
Health was the subject of “many discussions during the COP”, but “no formal negotiating framework for health has yet been defined”, Kress explained.
“Health is the most pressing area for climate action, but for too long, it has been a footnote in climate negotiations,” the WHO chief said today.
“It is much easier to convince people of the urgent need to protect their own health or that of their children than to protect glaciers or ecosystems. Both are important, one is much closer to us,” he added.
Brazil will announce a health-focused climate change adaptation plan tomorrow, on a day dedicated to health at the COP30 Summit, the WHO director-general said. This plan includes measures aimed at helping countries prepare their health systems and respond to health impacts, he explained.