Health workers have a ‘duty’ to demand fossil fuel phaseout, experts say

A resolution on climate and health being put forward at the World Health Assembly in Geneva this week sends a clear message to health ministers and professionals that they have “a duty to take action” on climate change, panelists said at a Devex event on the sideline of the meeting. However, the draft document fails to mention the need to phase out fossil fuels, “which is fundamental for health,” said Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change, a research collaboration of almost 100 academic centers headquartered at University College London’s Institute for Global Health. Climate change “is undermining the very basic building blocks of health,” said Romanello, citing how a warming planet is affecting tropical disease transmission, air quality, and access to clean water and healthy food. The United Nations Environment Programme warned last year that the world remains on track for around 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. “That future could be really disastrous. It could be a death sentence for millions if not billions,” she said. Romanello has previously described a fossil fuel phaseout as “the most important public health intervention of our times.” “We know that fossil fuels are incompatible with a liveable future,” she said at the Devex event, citing a recent study, which found that 5 million people die each year from outdoor air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. At the same time, the rollout of clean energy technologies is uneven and is not reaching countries with the lowest levels of development as measured by the Human Development Index — and they need it most. This leaves a vacuum for public-private partnerships, which are “locking in” gas in countries in Africa, South America, and South Asia at the expense of people’s health, Romanello added. Calling for a fossil fuel phaseout is “very political” and is receiving “a lot of pushback” from lobbying groups, she said, but “we know that it’s fundamental” and “is something that health professionals need to be advocating for.” “We know that fossil fuels are incompatible with a liveable future.” --— Marina Romanello, executive director, Lancet Countdown on climate change and health The resolution on climate change and health was proposed at the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization’s highest decision-making body, which brings together ministers and senior health leaders from the organization’s 194 member states. It aims to incorporate climate change into the global health agenda. The resolution comes after the United Nations’ COP 28 climate talks in Dubai last year formally included health in the climate conversation. The seven-page resolution states that climate change “is one of the major threats to global public health” and sets out a framework to build climate-resilient and sustainable health systems. This includes the development of national plans to cut the sector’s emissions and ensure it can adapt to climate impacts, and for greater collaboration between countries and national ministries. The resolution, which is not legally binding, is expected to be adopted at the end of the week. It was proposed by the Netherlands and Peru with support from an international coalition including Barbados, Fiji, Kenya, Monaco, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Shweta Narayan, an international climate and health campaigner at Health Care Without Harm, described the resolution as a “big moment” and “a first step in empowering the health ministries to have a voice beyond the health systems.” Narayan told the audience that health professionals, who are front-line witnesses of the impacts of climate change on people’s health, should call for a fossil fuel phaseout. “It’s not a luxury for the health community or a choice. It is just their moral duty to talk about it if they are really concerned about protecting their patients’ lives. The climate crisis is a health crisis,” she said. She added that the health sector should lead by example and is “increasingly understanding the seriousness of its own sectoral footprint.” According to Health Care Without Harm, the global health sector is responsible for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If it were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter. But the health sector alone “cannot adapt its way out of the crisis” and should use its “authority” to push for other sectors to decarbonize, she added. For Omnia El Omrani, a climate and health junior policy fellow at Imperial College London and COP 28 health envoy, the resolution, if approved, would act as “an accountability tool that young people and other civil society can use when their countries are not acting on climate change.”