WHO calls for climate change action to ensure 'healthy & green recovery' from COVID-19

With an aim to combat both climate change and the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on nations to set "ambitious" commitments in order to facilitate a "healthy and green recovery" from COVID-19. In a WHO Conference of Parties (COP) Special Report on Climate Change and Health, published just ahead of the Glasgow Summit, the organisation has spelled out the inseparable links between climate and health. The report has also prescribed 10 action-based priorities deemed mandatory for safeguarding the health of the people and the planet.

Emphasising on the need of the hour, WHO Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday urged "all countries to commit to decisive action at COP26 to limit global warming to 1.5°C- not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s in our own interests." He further stated, "The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the intimate and delicate links between mankind and the environment adding the same sustainable choices that are killing our planet and people."

The WHO report came at the time when two-thirds of the global health workforce signed an "open letter" urging national leaders of the COP26 to step up and take appropriate measures in order to avert "health catastrophe." The letter was brought forward by 300 organisations, representing at least 45 million doctors and health professionals worldwide, the WHO said in a statement. It is to mention that the report and open letter also comes amidst unprecedented extreme weather events -such as heatwaves, storms and floods, and other climate impacts, impacting people's lives and livelihood. 

"Wherever we deliver care, in our hospitals, clinics and communities around the world, we are already responding to the health harms caused by climate change,” the letter from health professionals read adding, "We call on the leaders of every country and their representatives at COP26 to avert the impending health catastrophe by limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and to make human health and equity central to all climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.”

Climate change is the single biggest health threat: WHO 

Changes in weather and climate are threatening food security and driving up food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, while climate impacts are also negatively affecting mental health, the WHO stated, adding that "climate change is the single biggest health threat" humanity is facing. “The burning of fossil fuels is killing us...While no one is safe from the health impacts of climate change, they are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged," the WHO asserted in its report.  

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