Around 200 health organisations and more than 1,400 health professionals on Wednesday called for governments to establish a binding international treaty on phasing out fossil fuels, which they said pose "a grave and escalating threat to human health".
The health community is calling for a binding international treaty to phase out fossil fuels
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A letter proposing the "fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty" said it could work similarly to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -- except this time the harmful controlled substances would be coal, oil and gas.
The WHO was among the health organisations from around the world who signed the letter.
"The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The letter called on national governments to develop and implement a legally binding mechanism that would immediately stop all future fossil fuel expansion, as well as phasing out existing production.
It emphasised that the transition should be carried out in "a fair and equitable manner," and that high-income countries should support lower-income nations to ensure the change "reduces poverty rather than exacerbating it".
Air pollution, mostly from burning fossil fuels, has been linked to the deaths of seven million people a year.
Climate change has also spurred more frequent and severe extreme weather events, which can have a lasting impact on health even beyond those initially affected by the disasters, including smoke from wildfires and diseases spread after floods.
The letter also pointed to the heightened health risks faced by the workers who extract, refine, transport and distribute fossil fuels and related products.
Phasing out fossil fuels would prevent 3.6 million deaths a year from air pollution alone, the letter said, adding that "the same cannot be said for proposed false solutions, such as carbon capture and storage".
- Either fossil fuels or health -
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, the head of the WHO's climate change unit, said that "from a health point of view, you can't fix a disease without calling out what is causing it".
The call for a treaty was important because it did not "try to use false accounting or imaginary solutions to continue to prop up the burning of fossil fuels," he told AFP.
"We can either have fossil fuels or we can have health -- we can't have both."
Courtney Howard, an emergency physician in Canada's sub-Arctic region who signed the letter, said that the city of Yellowknife had some of the worst air quality in the world when it was ringed by wildfires in 2014.
"We had a doubling of emergency department visits for asthma, a 50 percent increase in pneumonia and one of our pharmacies ran out of one of the breathing medicines," Howard told AFP.
She said that phasing out fossils fuels is "something we need to do for everybody -- for everybody's kids."
Jeni Miller, the executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance which helped coordinate the letter, called for international dialogue and negotiation to make the treaty a reality.
"The costs of inaction are increasing," she said.
A letter proposing the "fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty" said it could work similarly to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -- except this time the harmful controlled substances would be coal, oil and gas.
The WHO was among the health organisations from around the world who signed the letter.
"The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The letter called on national governments to develop and implement a legally binding mechanism that would immediately stop all future fossil fuel expansion, as well as phasing out existing production.
It emphasised that the transition should be carried out in "a fair and equitable manner," and that high-income countries should support lower-income nations to ensure the change "reduces poverty rather than exacerbating it".
Air pollution, mostly from burning fossil fuels, has been linked to the deaths of seven million people a year.
Climate change has also spurred more frequent and severe extreme weather events, which can have a lasting impact on health even beyond those initially affected by the disasters, including smoke from wildfires and diseases spread after floods.
The letter also pointed to the heightened health risks faced by the workers who extract, refine, transport and distribute fossil fuels and related products.
Phasing out fossil fuels would prevent 3.6 million deaths a year from air pollution alone, the letter said, adding that "the same cannot be said for proposed false solutions, such as carbon capture and storage".
- Either fossil fuels or health -
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, the head of the WHO's climate change unit, said that "from a health point of view, you can't fix a disease without calling out what is causing it".
The call for a treaty was important because it did not "try to use false accounting or imaginary solutions to continue to prop up the burning of fossil fuels," he told AFP.
"We can either have fossil fuels or we can have health -- we can't have both."
Courtney Howard, an emergency physician in Canada's sub-Arctic region who signed the letter, said that the city of Yellowknife had some of the worst air quality in the world when it was ringed by wildfires in 2014.
"We had a doubling of emergency department visits for asthma, a 50 percent increase in pneumonia and one of our pharmacies ran out of one of the breathing medicines," Howard told AFP.
She said that phasing out fossils fuels is "something we need to do for everybody -- for everybody's kids."
Jeni Miller, the executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance which helped coordinate the letter, called for international dialogue and negotiation to make the treaty a reality.
"The costs of inaction are increasing," she said.
Fossil fuel ban treaty would save lives, say global health groups
Air pollution linked to carbon emissions causes millions of deaths every year. A coalition of health groups have called for a nonproliferation treaty to end fossil fuel use around the world.
Air pollution linked to fossil fuel use is responsible for more than 6.5 million deaths every year, according to the WHO
More than 1,000 health workers and 200 organizations have demanded that governments worldwide create and enact a legally binding nonproliferation treaty to end the global dependence on fossil fuels, which are known to be harmful to human health.
"The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, which backed the initiative along with the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Health Care Without Harm and other groups.
In a public letter released Wednesday, they called for an immediate end to new fossil fuel exploration, production and infrastructure. Existing production should be phased out in a "fair and equitable manner" to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) climate goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, with "financial, technological and other support" for low- and middle-income countries to ensure a"just transition"to a sustainable future.
"The proposal for a treaty aims to support what the international community has been pushing on for years but focusing on the supply side," Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, told DW. "A treaty will allow the Paris Agreement to be stronger by creating a legally binding international mechanism that focuses on the heart of the problem: extracting fossil fuels. If we do not end extraction, it will be much more difficult to end use of these fuels."
"While everybody is aware that we need to end fossil fuel production and use in order to limit climate change, there is less awareness about the huge health bill that has come with decades of coal, oil and gas use," said Anne Stauffer, deputy director at the Brussels-based Health and Environment Alliance.
"With the pandemic, policy makers have placed health protection to the top of their agendas. Now, they need to bring their commitment to preventing ill-health to the area of fossil fuels."
Poor air quality causes millions of deaths each year
Air pollution linked to fossil fuel use causes more than 6.5 million deaths around the world each year, according to a May 2022 study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. More than 90% of these deaths are happening in rapidly developing countries in Africa and Asia. Almost no one on Earth is spared. According to the latest WHO figures, 99% of the world's population lives in places where the air they breathe exceeds quality limits set by the global body.
The link between fossil fuel emissions and health was made clearer during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cities across the world essentially shut down. With businesses closed, roads empty and many people staying home, carbon emissions decreased and air quality improved in many major centers, if only for a short time.
A recent study comparing 46 European cities during those months estimated that 800 deaths linked to air pollution in those cities may have been prevented in the first half of 2020. While just a snapshot of an unprecedented moment in time, the results do reflect how better air quality could improve the health of billions of people worldwide.
The results of the study are backed by moves to phase out coal in other parts of the world over the last 20 years. After the closure of coal-fired power plants in California and Ontario, Canada, for example, surrounding communities saw significant decreases in premature deaths, preterm births and hospital admissions.
Exiting fossil fuels to protect human and ecosystem health
The proposed treaty, to be negotiated by participating countries, would follow the example set by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The international accord, which entered into force in 2005, aims to raise awareness of the dangers of tobacco and limit its use.
A fossil fuel treaty would seek to do the same for the use of coal, oil and gas, which are known to be harmful to human and ecosystem health. The letter points out the numerous health effects of fossil fuel use that go beyond the direct impact of air pollution. A warming climate, for example, also increases the risk of heat-related illness and death and favors the spread of food and waterborne illnesses. At the same time, health care systems and medical supply chains are also coming under increasing strain.
The effects of air pollution in major cities like Dhaka, as seen here, are worse for children and the elderly
"Communities around the world have been paying the health price for our dependence on fossil fuels for far too long," said Miller. "Every stage of the fossil fuel cycle puts people's health at risk, from mining and fracking to transport through pipelines, to processing and finally to burning fossil fuels for transport, electricity, and industrial use," she said.
New treaty would be a 'tangible sign' that governments are serious
Stauffer of the Health and Environment Alliance told DW the call for a new treaty comes at a crucial time, pointing out that despite increased commitments in recent years from entities like the G20 and the European Union, progress on cutting back on fossil fuels has been too slow. The current geopolitical crisis in Europe isn't helping matters, with countries scrambling to find oil and gas from sources other than Russia rather than strengthening renewables.
"With the many short-term measures to deal with the implications from the war in Ukraine, we're risking a fossil fuel lock-in in Europe, despite all commitments to climate neutrality and energy transition," Stauffer said.
"A fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty would be a tangible sign and commitment by governments that they're serious about protecting our health and tackling a top cause of ill health," she added.
Miller said clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels are readily available, but remain out of reach for many. Developed countries, which have profited from decades of growth based on polluting power, now "have the resources and moral responsibility not only to make the clean energy transition, but to support developing countries to do the same," she said.
"For decades we've depended on the capacity of fossil fuels to provide energy, but we now have alternatives that are cleaner and more sustainable — and compatible with the healthier future we want," she added.
7 WAYS HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT WILL BENEFIT HUMAN HEALTH
Link between CO2 and less nutritious food
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions would not only slow global heating, it would also ensure our food remains nutritious. When plants absorb excess CO2, they produce less protein and fewer nutrients like zinc and iron. Deficiencies in those nutrients can result in many health problems, especially in children. If CO2 keeps rising, hundreds of millions more people will face chronic undernutrition.
1234567
Edited by: Jennifer Collins
Air pollution linked to carbon emissions causes millions of deaths every year. A coalition of health groups have called for a nonproliferation treaty to end fossil fuel use around the world.
Air pollution linked to fossil fuel use is responsible for more than 6.5 million deaths every year, according to the WHO
More than 1,000 health workers and 200 organizations have demanded that governments worldwide create and enact a legally binding nonproliferation treaty to end the global dependence on fossil fuels, which are known to be harmful to human health.
"The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, which backed the initiative along with the Global Climate and Health Alliance, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Health Care Without Harm and other groups.
In a public letter released Wednesday, they called for an immediate end to new fossil fuel exploration, production and infrastructure. Existing production should be phased out in a "fair and equitable manner" to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) climate goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, with "financial, technological and other support" for low- and middle-income countries to ensure a"just transition"to a sustainable future.
"The proposal for a treaty aims to support what the international community has been pushing on for years but focusing on the supply side," Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, told DW. "A treaty will allow the Paris Agreement to be stronger by creating a legally binding international mechanism that focuses on the heart of the problem: extracting fossil fuels. If we do not end extraction, it will be much more difficult to end use of these fuels."
"While everybody is aware that we need to end fossil fuel production and use in order to limit climate change, there is less awareness about the huge health bill that has come with decades of coal, oil and gas use," said Anne Stauffer, deputy director at the Brussels-based Health and Environment Alliance.
"With the pandemic, policy makers have placed health protection to the top of their agendas. Now, they need to bring their commitment to preventing ill-health to the area of fossil fuels."
Poor air quality causes millions of deaths each year
Air pollution linked to fossil fuel use causes more than 6.5 million deaths around the world each year, according to a May 2022 study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal. More than 90% of these deaths are happening in rapidly developing countries in Africa and Asia. Almost no one on Earth is spared. According to the latest WHO figures, 99% of the world's population lives in places where the air they breathe exceeds quality limits set by the global body.
The link between fossil fuel emissions and health was made clearer during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cities across the world essentially shut down. With businesses closed, roads empty and many people staying home, carbon emissions decreased and air quality improved in many major centers, if only for a short time.
A recent study comparing 46 European cities during those months estimated that 800 deaths linked to air pollution in those cities may have been prevented in the first half of 2020. While just a snapshot of an unprecedented moment in time, the results do reflect how better air quality could improve the health of billions of people worldwide.
The results of the study are backed by moves to phase out coal in other parts of the world over the last 20 years. After the closure of coal-fired power plants in California and Ontario, Canada, for example, surrounding communities saw significant decreases in premature deaths, preterm births and hospital admissions.
Exiting fossil fuels to protect human and ecosystem health
The proposed treaty, to be negotiated by participating countries, would follow the example set by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The international accord, which entered into force in 2005, aims to raise awareness of the dangers of tobacco and limit its use.
A fossil fuel treaty would seek to do the same for the use of coal, oil and gas, which are known to be harmful to human and ecosystem health. The letter points out the numerous health effects of fossil fuel use that go beyond the direct impact of air pollution. A warming climate, for example, also increases the risk of heat-related illness and death and favors the spread of food and waterborne illnesses. At the same time, health care systems and medical supply chains are also coming under increasing strain.
The effects of air pollution in major cities like Dhaka, as seen here, are worse for children and the elderly
"Communities around the world have been paying the health price for our dependence on fossil fuels for far too long," said Miller. "Every stage of the fossil fuel cycle puts people's health at risk, from mining and fracking to transport through pipelines, to processing and finally to burning fossil fuels for transport, electricity, and industrial use," she said.
New treaty would be a 'tangible sign' that governments are serious
Stauffer of the Health and Environment Alliance told DW the call for a new treaty comes at a crucial time, pointing out that despite increased commitments in recent years from entities like the G20 and the European Union, progress on cutting back on fossil fuels has been too slow. The current geopolitical crisis in Europe isn't helping matters, with countries scrambling to find oil and gas from sources other than Russia rather than strengthening renewables.
"With the many short-term measures to deal with the implications from the war in Ukraine, we're risking a fossil fuel lock-in in Europe, despite all commitments to climate neutrality and energy transition," Stauffer said.
"A fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty would be a tangible sign and commitment by governments that they're serious about protecting our health and tackling a top cause of ill health," she added.
Miller said clean energy alternatives to fossil fuels are readily available, but remain out of reach for many. Developed countries, which have profited from decades of growth based on polluting power, now "have the resources and moral responsibility not only to make the clean energy transition, but to support developing countries to do the same," she said.
"For decades we've depended on the capacity of fossil fuels to provide energy, but we now have alternatives that are cleaner and more sustainable — and compatible with the healthier future we want," she added.
7 WAYS HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT WILL BENEFIT HUMAN HEALTH
Link between CO2 and less nutritious food
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions would not only slow global heating, it would also ensure our food remains nutritious. When plants absorb excess CO2, they produce less protein and fewer nutrients like zinc and iron. Deficiencies in those nutrients can result in many health problems, especially in children. If CO2 keeps rising, hundreds of millions more people will face chronic undernutrition.
1234567
Edited by: Jennifer Collins
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