PHM-Exch> Prescription for a Healthy Planet-- Health Sector Mobilizes on Climate Change

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Josh Karliner josh at hcwh.org
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I am writing to encourage you to join on to a global effort make the health
sector’s voice heard at the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen by
endorsing the Presciprtion for a Healthy Planet at
www.climateandhealthcare.org .

 The Prescription is already endorsed by more than 50 leading health
organizations, representing millions of health professionals from around the
world.

 Please feel free to pass this on to other interested parties.

 You can endorse the Prescription for a Healthy Planet at
www.climateandhealthcare.org

 *International Team Coordinator, Health Care Without Harm*

www.noharm.org

British Medical Journal

Published 9 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4611
*Cite this as:* BMJ 2009;339:b4611
*Activists call for public health to take central role in UN climate change
talks*

*Miguel Jara*

Environmental health activists have been campaigning for public health
aspects of climate change to be incorporated into any agreement reached when
world leaders meet to discuss global warming in Copenhagen next month.

Roberto Bertollini, director of the special programme on health and
environment at the World Health Organization’s regional office in Europe,
said, "In the 1992 agreement [made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro],
in articles 1 and 2, human health was mentioned in relation to global
warming, but this topic has been lost over the years, and now we are making
sure it gets back into the agenda."

He was speaking at climate change talks in Barcelona ahead of the United
Nations meeting in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December.

"At WHO we would like to see greater attention given to the social and
health impacts of climate change in the current negotiations," said Dr
Bertollini. "Population adaptation will require the active involvement of
health systems and the necessary human and financial resources.

"We hope that the new treaty will meet these needs, and we expect that this
initiative from the health community in Barcelona will draw more attention
to the health impacts of climate change and the necessary response."

He was handed a giant placard with the words "Prescription for a healthy
planet" across it to represent the interests of millions of healthcare
professionals in more than 120 countries whose organisations have endorsed
it. The placard will be handed to UN officials at the climate talks.

The "prescription" diagnoses the global threats to public health that
climate change poses and urges the world’s governments to negotiate a
strong, binding agreement. The groups are calling for the Copenhagen treaty
to protect public health, set strong targets on emission reductions, promote
clean energy, and mandate major funding for developing countries to cope
with the climate crisis.

Pendo Maro, senior climate and energy adviser at Health Care Without Harm
and Health and Environment Alliance, the two organisations that developed
the prescription in collaboration with the Climate and Health Council, a UK
based body that aims to mobilise health professionals worldwide to act
against climate change, said, "With this prescription, healthcare leaders
from around the world are speaking with one voice, insisting that an
agreement in Copenhagen must protect both the planet and public health."

In the past two months the prescription has been endorsed by many major
health organisations, including the International Council of Nurses (a
global federation of national nursing organisations representing nurses in
128 countries), the International Society of Doctors for the Environment,
and the Standing Committee of European Doctors, which represents 27 medical
associations in Europe. In the United States a parallel initiative from
healthcare leaders representing hundreds of hospitals and nearly three million
health professionals is calling on President Obama to support the points
made in the prescription.

Paulo Buss, president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations,
another of the prescription’s signatories, said, "As public health
professionals we have a duty to warn the world’s governments that if they do
not take bold action now we face the spectre of a future of global
public health
crises generated or exacerbated by climate change."

Dr Bertollini said that if the Copenhagen agreement addresses key aspects of
health, the health sector in developing countries will benefit from funding
"that will be available for adaptation to climate change and so be able to
work better in the direction of prevention and treatment of problems like
diarrhoea."

It has been rumoured in Barcelona that the document that will come out of
the Copenhagen meeting will be a political agreement and not a legally
binding treaty. Dr Bertollini said this may not be a bad thing, because
"that which is legally binding is not necessarily respected, as we have seen
with the Kyoto treaty."

He added: "I think that the human health factor as a result of climate
change is very present in this agreement, and there will be other
negotiations in 2011 or even in 2010 about this."

However, other health activists said that the difference between an
agreement and a legally binding treaty was considerable, with a treaty
attracting more tools for enforcement and more funding.

A European Commission impact assessment estimated that the annual public
health savings resulting from a 20% reduction in carbon emissions (from 1990
levels) by 2020 would be [image: {euro}]52bn (£47bn; $77bn) each year after
2020 in Europe alone.

*Cite this as:* *BMJ* 2009;339:b4611
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