Statement to the 154th Executive Board - Climate change and health

Climate change and health

Draft decision proposed by Barbados, Fiji, Kenya, Monaco, Netherlands (Kingdom of the), Peru, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

We welcome the Resolution on climate change and health and support the proposed integrated actions.

The climate and obesity epidemic represent a synergy of epidemics. Both global crises are linked by prevailing modes of food and agriculture, transportation, urban design, and land use. Because of their combined nature, progress on any one of these issues will necessarily yield progress on the other. The forces that sustain a global planetary diet, for example, emphasises the potential for major beneficial effects that double-duty actions, which simultaneously act on both planetary and human health, will have.

We therefore call upon Member States to adopt the Resolution and commit to whole-of-government mitigation and adaptation action; joining up the silos of action to create platforms to work collaboratively on common systemic drivers, engaging beyond the health sector to capitalise on health co-benefits of climate action.