Many thanks Chris for your helpful summary of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health.
https://www.cop28.com/en/cop28-declaration-on-climate-relief-recovery-an...
https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/cop-28-5-cop28-uae-declaration-climate-...
I have reviewed the Declaration and what is missing is the most important point of all: that climate change is an existential threat to human civilisation. The Declaration conspicuously avoids words like "catastrophe", "existential" and even "disaster". Why?
I understood there is consensus among scientists that climate change will potentially lead to catastrophic impacts on health and civilisation? If such consensus is there, then the most urgent task is to make everyone aware of, and truly understand, the implications - in terms of future impact on health, widespread suffering and civilisation.
The editorial that you ably shepherded to publication in more than 250 journals does better [ https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2355 ]. 'Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency' uses the word catastrophe (or catastrophic) three times, in particular noting that climate change and tipping points could have a globally catastrophic impact on health.
Kamran Abbasi, editor-in-chief of The BMJ (and lead author of the above editorial) puts it more starkly in his BMJ column 'Editor's choice': "As we approach the close of 2023, a hard, unforgiving year, consider this: the world, as we know it, is about to end. Life on Earth may not survive into the 22nd century; humanity has no more than 30 years..." https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2884
I believe it is important that every COP Declaration should recognise that climate change is an existential threat to global health and human civilisation. Do you or others have thoughts on why this is not spelled out? Presumably it is because certain countries blocked such language? I would be interested to understand more as I see climate change as a huge threat to global health over the coming decades. It seems most of the world's population is unaware of the implications, and not enough is being done to empower people with this understanding.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
