Global | HCWH Supports World Medical Association Call to its National Association Members to Discuss Divestment from Fossil Fuels

Global | HCWH Supports World Medical Association Call to its National Association Members to Discuss Divestment from Fossil Fuels

Health Care Without Harm today applauded the unanimous decision by delegates gathered in Moscow this past week at the World Medical Association’s (WMA) Annual General Assembly to call on its more than 100 constituent member associations to consider divestment from fossil fuels.

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Global | Endorse the Paris Platform for Healthy Energy

Global | Endorse the Paris Platform for Healthy Energy

The Paris Platform for Healthy Energy represents the views of an informal collaboration of organizations and individuals in the health sector committed to a transition to clean, renewable, healthy energy in order to protect public health. A project of the Healthy Energy Initiative, the Platform serves as a guiding document — in the lead up to, during, and beyond the 2015 United Nations Climate Conference in Paris — for the health sector’s efforts to mobilize globally and in key countries to advocate for healthy energy.

The lead endorsers of the Platform are Health …

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Global | 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change

Today, globally renowned medical journal the Lancet released the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change: Policy Responses to Protect Public Health, an update to the landmark 2009 Lancet Commission report. This new report argues that tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century, an opportunity that now requires political will to realize.

The report’s policy recommendations range from cities supporting lifestyles for healthy people and planet, to an international agreement to transition to a low-carbon economy; and from phasing …

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

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 …

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Global | New HCWH White Paper Series: The Consequences of Coal and the Case for Divestment

Health Care Without Harm released a series of white­ papers that make the health, financial, and theological arguments for the health sector to divest from coal. The series argues that this public and moral action is central to health care’s mission, and is an important demonstration of leadership.

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Global | World’s Public Health Leaders Call for an End to Coal

Versión en español aquí / Spanish version here.

KOLKATA – At the close of their international conference in Kolkata, as part of a broad “Call to Action for Public Health,” the world’s public health associations advocated “a rapid phase-out of coal” to limit further global warming and prevent illnesses and deaths associated with air pollution.

The Healthy Energy Initiative welcomed the Call to Action released at the World Congress on Public Health, hosted by the Indian Public Health Association and attended by more than 1,600 delegates. The Call to …

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Healthy Energy Initiative Debuts at the 14th World Congress on Public Health

The Healthy Energy Initiative will be exploring the nexus between climate change, energy generation, and public health in Kolkata, India at the World Federation of Public Health Association’s 14th World Congress on Public Health, through a set of scientific sessions, a photography exhibition, and film screenings.

In the last few years, leading medical journals, health organizations, and health professionals have begun to endorse the evidence and amplify the message that air pollution and climate change both pose serious challenges to global public health and therefore …

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

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 …

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