EU urged to secure healthy future for the planet

A new campaign has been launched warning of the health impacts of climate change.

The main aim of the Prescription for a Healthy Planet campaign is to secure policy responses to climate change which protect the health of communities.

This will help reduce the burden for the health sector, which will have to deal with many of the consequences associated with climate change.

The campaign is being led by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), and was launched by European commissioner for health, Androulla Vassiliou.

“Climate change is a major issue for all EU policy areas, and it is clear that its impact on human, animal and plant health will be of massive importance to citizens in years to come,” said Vassiliou.

It is hoped that Vassiliou will urge the EU delegates to raise this issue at the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

The drive to consider health a key part of climate change talks was supported by German Socialist deputy Jo Leinen, chair of the European parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee.

“I hope that in Copenhagen, health issues will be in the debate,” he said.

A report from the WHO has however warned of the need to also ensure that the health impacts of climate change do not unjustly affect different groups of people.

“It is critical to ensure that economic and social policy responses to climate change and other environmental degradation take into account health equity,” the report says.

“[T]he investment that takes place in the next 10-20 years will have a profound and long-lasting effect not only on the climate but on the health of our children and our children’s children,” the report adds.

More information about the Prescription for a Healthy Planet campaign can be found in this press release.

The WHO report on health inequalities can be accessed here.

[Photo: HEAL/Lisa Develtere]