Feature
Health at COP26: meaningful progress or watered down promises? Air Quality News reporter Chloe Coules reflects on the role of health at COP26 and explores whether the health emergency of climate change is being taken seriously by world leaders.
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he climate emergency is already affecting a range of social and environmental factors that contribute to our quality of health, including how clean the air is, how safe the water is to drink, and whether there is sufficient food and shelter for our global population. As a result of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) expects climate change to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths a year between 2030 and 2050, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and
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heat stress. Going into COP26, as countries continued to fight ongoing waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and delegates arrived in Glasgow masked, sanitized and tested, discussions of health had never been more visible in modern society. While there is no direct evidence of a link between climate change and Covid-19, research has linked many of the root causes of an increased risk of pandemics with the root causes of climate change, such as deforestation and unsustainable meat production, making tackling the health impacts
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of climate change more pressing than ever if we want to prevent future outbreaks. The ongoing pandemic and increased awareness of health risks granted health a bigger platform at COP26 than had ever been seen at a UN climate conference, but did it do enough to deliver a sustainable and resilient future for healthcare? Building resilient health systems For the first time, the health community had its own pavilion at
