From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Remco van de Pas</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:remco.van.de.pas@wemos.nl">remco.van.de.pas@wemos.nl</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="http://getinvolvedinglobalhealth.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html" target="_blank">http://getinvolvedinglobalhealth.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html</a><br>
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<h2><span>Thursday, 8 December 2011</span>
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<h3><a href="http://getinvolvedinglobalhealth.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-dont-want-africa-to-be-burial-ground.html" target="_blank">"We
don’t want Africa to be the burial ground of Kyoto!"</a> </h3>
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<div style="font-family:inherit"><span style="font-weight:bold">On behalf of Wemos, Lietje Petri was in Durban,
South Africa, where the annual climate conference of the
United Nations took place. Climate change is becoming
the greatest threat to global public health. Lietje was
in Durban to exchange ideas for collaboration with
organisations and networks from other countries and the
Netherlands. <br>
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<div style="font-family:inherit"><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">The
first Global Climate and Health Summit ever took place
last Sunday, 4 December 2011, in Durban where this
year’s UN Conference on Climate Change is being held.
This event, organised by a number of non-governmental
organisations, brought together over 200 participants
and delegates. The aim of the day was to raise
awareness that climate change is the greatest global
health threat of this century, to set out the evidence
and to suggest ways forward. It was a day with many
high quality presentations. Here follows an attempt to
summarise some of the key messages coming from various
speakers. <br>
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Despite all the pledges to cut greenhouse gas
emissions, global emissions went up last year with 6%.
Very drastic carbon cuts are needed to keep global
temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius to avoid
dangerous climate change; without these, temperatures
are set to rise with 6 degrees. Climate change affects
the environmental determinants of health and leads to
spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue;
increased extreme weather events; more population
migration due to droughts and floods with more risk of
conflict. Effects are felt already everywhere, but
mainly by poor countries who contributed least to the
problem. <br>
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But there are ways forward, and health can contribute.
For example, promoting less polluting vehicles and
more active lifestyles will reduce carbon, whilst also
reducing lung and heart disease and saving money;
quantifications of the co-benefits for health and
climate of such measures were presented, showing that
reducing carbon emissions can go hand in hand with
saving millions of lives and billions of dollars. <br>
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Several speakers pointed to the root causes behind
climate change and the problems with reaching a fair
new agreement in Durban: the power of big
corporations; and the existing inequalities that make
that the voice of rich countries is stronger than that
of poorer countries. One of the African delegates had
expressed his despair during the negotiations: "We
don’t want Africa to be the burial ground of Kyoto!"
For any agreement, it is key that it will be
equitable. <br>
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The conference concluded with the endorsing and
issuing of a </span><a href="http://www.wemos.nl/news/file.aspx?lid=1&id=425" target="_blank"><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">Declaration</span></a> <span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">and
an urgent </span><a href="http://www.wemos.nl/news/file.aspx?lid=1&id=424" target="_blank"><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">Call to Action</span></a><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family:inherit"><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal">Lietje
Petri, <a href="http://www.wemos.nl/" target="_blank">Wemos</a></span></div>
<div><span style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal"><a style="font-family:inherit" href="mailto:lietjepetri@gmail.com" target="_blank">lietjepetri@gmail.com
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