Global | Commitments, call to action, and key takeaways from the WHO Air Pollution Conference

Global | Commitments, call to action, and key takeaways from the WHO Air Pollution Conference
Post Date November 8, 2018
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category Healthy Energy Initiative News

Health Care Without Harm participated in the First WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva, Switzerland from October 30 – November 1, 2018. Learn more about our engagement at the conference at noharm-global.org/whoglobal.

“The health of the nation is in peril and the future of our children is at stake. It is time for resolute action, not just seasonal lament.”

– Dr. K. Srinath Reddy (President of the Public Health Foundation of India, a Health Care Without Harm partner) …

Read More »

9 out of 10 People Worldwide Breathe Polluted Air, But More Countries Are Taking Action

9 out of 10 People Worldwide Breathe Polluted Air, But More Countries Are Taking Action
Post Date May 2, 2018
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category Other News

Source: World Health Organization

Air pollution levels remain dangerously high in many parts of the world. New data from WHO shows that 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. Updated estimations reveal an alarming death toll of 7 million people every year caused by ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution.

“Air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It is unacceptable that over 3 …

Read More »

Global | 92% of the world’s population exposed to excessive air pollution, WHO says

Global | 92% of the world’s population exposed to excessive air pollution, WHO says
Post Date October 24, 2016
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category Climate and Health Resource Center

A new World Health Organization (WHO) air quality model confirms that 92% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed WHO limits. Information is presented via interactive maps, highlighting areas within countries that exceed WHO limits.

“The new WHO model shows countries where the air pollution danger spots are, and provides a baseline for monitoring progress in combatting it,” says Dr Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director General at WHO. It also represents the most detailed outdoor (or ambient) air pollution-related health data, by …

Read More »

Global | Conference on Health and Climate sets health action agenda for implementation of Paris Agreement

Global | Conference on Health and Climate sets health action agenda for implementation of Paris Agreement
Post Date July 20, 2016
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category Healthy Energy Initiative News

More than 300 government ministers, health experts and practitioners, and other participants came together at the Second Global Conference on Health and Climate, hosted by the WHO and the Government of France, to propose key actions for the implementation of the Paris Agreement to reduce health risks linked to climate change. These actions include switching to cleaner energy sources, advancing low-carbon health care, and increasing the resilience of health systems and health determinants to climate risks.

Highlights from the Conference:

Conference Conclusions
Action Agenda
Conference Programme
HCWH at the WHO …

Read More »

Global | “Reaching a tipping point”: Climate a key issue at World Health Assembly

Global | “Reaching a tipping point”: Climate a key issue at World Health Assembly
Post Date June 1, 2016
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category Healthy Energy Initiative News

Almost six months after she helped broker a unanimous agreement among 195 governments in Paris, Christiana Figueres, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, came to the World Health Assembly to urge ministers of health to prioritize climate change. Figueres eloquently argued that “working on climate change is [our] best prevention strategy” and that ministers need to use “the health microphone… [to] translate what climate change actually means for real people.”

In his blog post, Health Care Without Harm’s Josh Karliner discusses how climate …

Read More »

Global | Governments Recognize Air Pollution’s Threat to Human Health

Post Date May 28, 2015
Comments 0 Comments
Author
Category Healthy Energy Initiative News

World Health Assembly’s Air Pollution Resolution is a Small First Step

Image courtesy of WHO

The world’s governments took an important step forward in recognizing air pollution as a major threat to human health, by issuing a resolution at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May. However, governments were unwilling or unable to address the single most significant source of both outdoor air pollution and climate change: society’s dependence on fossil fuels, particularly the combustion of coal for energy generation.

The Healthy Energy Initiative expressed concern that the magnitude and urgency …

Read More »

Conference on Health and Climate Change – Civil Society Call to Action

Post Date September 1, 2014
Comments 0 Comments
Author
Category Healthy Energy Initiative News

Last week the WHO convened a Conference on Health and Climate Change attended by more than 300 people, including 30 ministers of health, official representatives from several dozen countries, scientists, economists, and representative from civil society health organizations.
The conference identified the urgency of the climate problem in its many health dimensions as well as a framework for the health sector to move forward in addressing it. Read the following:

The Civil Society Call to Action calling on the health sector to “mobilize to lead the transformation …

Read More »