Australia | Health Minister urged to address climate change as major threat to health

Australia | Health Minister urged to address climate change as major threat to health

via the Climate and Health Alliance

A report released today by the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) warns Australia will fail to fulfil its obligations under the Paris climate change agreement if the Federal Government continues to ignore the health risks associated with climate change.

Leading health and medical experts say successive Australian governments have overlooked the health implications of climate change, leaving Australians vulnerable and the health sector underprepared.

Nobel Laureate for Medicine Professor Peter Doherty says the inclusion of health in the Paris Agreement now obliges the federal …

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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

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 …

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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

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 …

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Australia | CCA urged to consider 1.5 degree pathway in climate policy options for Australia

Australia | CCA urged to consider 1.5 degree pathway in climate policy options for Australia

The Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA, the Healthy Energy Initiative’s partner in Australia) has urged the Federal Government and the Climate Change Authority to reconsider and re-evaluate its recommendations for emissions reductions, in light of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This Agreement includes a new obligation for all nations to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre- industrial levels”.

CAHA Member groups met with the Climate Change Authority recently to discuss the CCA Draft Report on Climate Policy Options. CAHA has compiled a submission …

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US | Dignity Health CEO: More Needs To Be Done To Prioritize Climate Change

US | Dignity Health CEO: More Needs To Be Done To Prioritize Climate Change

25 February 2016 — Lloyd Dean, president and CEO of Dignity Health, one of the United States’ largest health systems, wrote in Health Affairs Blog about the health care industry’s “moral responsibility to address climate change head-on.” Below we highlight some particularly powerful excerpts on the role of the health care industry in leading the way to a healthy climate.

On hospitals reducing their carbon emissions and increasing use of renewable energy:

Although progress has been slow, more and more hospitals are recognizing the importance of going green and hospitals are instituting …

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Paris Round-up | The New Climate Treaty and Health Care Action

Paris Round-up | The New Climate Treaty and Health Care Action

COP 21 is over.  Government ministers from around the world have completed work on the Paris Treaty and have headed home after two weeks of intense negotiations.   The accord they finalized, while far from perfect is a major step in the direction of moving the world away from fossil fuels and toward 100% renewable energy in the coming decades.

If truly implemented, this treaty could become known as the greatest public health accomplishment of our time.  Indeed, the Paris Moment may well be remembered as that …

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Global | HCWH Applauds New Paris Treaty and Calls on Health Sector to Mobilize for Implementation

Global | HCWH Applauds New Paris Treaty and Calls on Health Sector to Mobilize for Implementation

“The Paris climate agreement is a prescription for a healthy planet that can address the world’s greatest public health threat. Now we will need to go on a crash renewable energy and low carbon diet that both stabilizes the climate and reduces diseases related to our addiction to fossil fuels.” Gary Cohen, President, Health Care Without Harm

The new Paris climate treaty is far from perfect, but it takes a major step to move the world away from fossil fuels and toward 100% clean, renewable energy in …

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Global | Leading Health Organizations Issue Paris Platform for Healthy Energy

Global | Leading Health Organizations Issue Paris Platform for Healthy Energy

Call for A Global Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean, Renewable Energy

Health Care Without Harm, together with partners, has issued the Paris Platform for Healthy Energy, calling for a global shift from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

The Paris Platform, endorsed by over 40 organisations representing the health sector in more than 80 countries, demonstrates a commitment to leadership and advocacy for clean, renewable, healthy energy choices in order to protect public health from both climate change and local pollution.

“The most important pathway to reducing …

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US | Dignity Health to Limit Investments in Thermal Coal Energy

US | Dignity Health to Limit Investments in Thermal Coal Energy

SAN FRANCISCO–Dignity Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, today announced it will restrict investments in thermal coal companies, and expand investments in sustainability-focused asset managers and investment opportunities addressing climate change. The non-profit health system has recently strengthened its advocacy efforts by urging portfolio managers to include environmental sustainability into their investment decisions. This new screen against thermal coal has led Dignity Health to divest its holdings in a number of companies, and to restrict further investment in the industry. Read more via Business Wire

See …

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Global | Film Festival to Shine Spotlight on Health Costs of Coal

Global | Film Festival to Shine Spotlight on Health Costs of Coal

International health and environmental advocates will host a mini festival of award-winning short films that highlight the health and social effects of coal. As part of the festival, the Healthy Energy Initiative will be presenting three short films produced by its partners in Australia, the Philippines, and South Africa. Other films will explore coal development in Russia and China. Together, these are some of the largest coal-producing countries in the world.

The December 7th Paris event coincides with the second week of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP21). As world …

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