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UN
Climate Change
Global
Climate Action
27
October
2020 | |
Health
Professionals on the Frontline of Two
Crises | |
Fulfilling
the Paris Agreement’s goals won’t just stem the
climate crisis, it will also strengthen public
health, cut healthcare costs and prevent
premature deaths around the world, as the
World
Health Organization
has made clear. It estimates that up to a
quarter
of global disease
is caused by “modifiable environmental factors”,
such as exposure to waste and chemicals
pollution; while 7
million premature deaths
per year are linked to air pollution.
The
links between the environment, climate and
public health have never been as evident as they
are in 2020. Healthcare professionals and
hospitals are still reeling from the Covid-19
pandemic while at the same time, in many parts
of the world, responding to the health impacts
of air pollution, extreme heat, wildfires,
storms and other climate change effects.
As
a result, health care professionals are throwing
more weight behind the movement for a healthier
climate and planet, including through Health
Care Without Harm,
which links health professionals and
organizations with colleagues working for a
healthier climate. “The first step to solution
is to become aware, awake, and then only the
action will come,” Indian thoracic surgeon Dr.
Arvind Kumar says in a video.
Examples of action around the world include:
- The
National
Health Service
in England, Europe’s largest employer, last
month joined the Race to Zero with a commitment
to eliminate its net greenhouse gas emissions by
2040 and those in its supply chain by 2045. The
NHS was the first national health system in the
world to set its own climate target, but tens of
thousands of hospitals and health centres are
working to shrink their footprint, as part of
Green
and Healthy Hospitals.
- Over
40 million healthcare professionals —
representing about half the medical workforce —
signed an open
letter
in May calling on G20 leaders to forge a healthy
recovery from Covid-19. A number of medical
groups have followed with their own open
letters, including pediatricians from all 50 US
states,
who this month sounded the alarm on the risks of
climate change for children’s health and urged
people to vote in favour of climate action in
the elections.
- WHO,
working with the global health community, set
out prescriptions
for a healthier recovery from the Covid-19
crisis, including: protect and preserve nature;
ensure a quick energy transition; build livable
cities; promote sustainable food systems; stop
using taxpayer money to fund pollution.
- Groups
including Latin America’s Salud
sin Daño
and India’s
Doctors for Clean Air
are offering courses to help health
professionals become climate action leaders.
Education and training is crucial, as a global
survey by the
International Federation of Medical Students’
Associations found in
September
that climate change is taught in only 15 percent
of medical schools worldwide.
- A
number of pharmaceutical companies have
committed to shrink their own carbon footprints.
Novo
Nordisk
aims to reach zero CO2 emissions from its
operations and transport, and sources all of its
direct supplies from 100 percent renewable
energy, by 2030. AstraZeneca
aims to cut CO2 from its operations to zero by
2025 and make its value chain carbon-negative by
2030; Takeda
aims to reach net zero emissions from its
operations by 2040, and halve its indirect
emissions.
- Cities
are making health and wellbeing a priority in
their recovery from Covid-19 and efforts to
build resilience to climate change, such as
Freetown’s plan to plant 1 trillion trees in two
years (doubling the city’s forest cover), the
expansion of cycling lanes in Bogotá and Milan,
and roll-out of electric buses and taxis in
Shenzhen.
| |
Healthy Paris Climate
Plans | |
The
Climate Vulnerable Forum, made up of 48
climate-vulnerable countries, launched the
Midnight
Survival Initiative for the Climate
this month, calling on countries to submit
updated and enhanced climate plans by midnight
on December 31 — a survival deadline for the
climate. Several climate-vulnerable countries
have highlighted the health and economic
benefits of more concerted action in their
own updated plans. The Marshall Islands points
out the health benefits of implementing its
renewable electricity roadmap. Rwanda includes
an extensive framework for becoming resilient to
the impacts of climate change including to
improve and protect people’s health.
A
2019 survey
has shown that 70 percent of national climate
plans already include public health
considerations, such as health adaptation
measures or added health benefits from climate
action. New plans are likely to increase the
focus on health benefits by placing climate
targets in the context of Covid-19 recovery.
Chile’s new plan, for example, promises to align
its climate policy with the need to address the
pandemic by “holding human and territorial
wellbeing at its core”.
| |
Partners
from all over the world are coming together from
November 9 to 19 for the Race to
Zero Dialogues.
Dialogues will launch the Climate Action
Pathways, which define the plans for unlocking
the systems transformations needed — and in some
cases already underway — to cut emissions to
zero across 10 key sectors and build a
resilient, zero-carbon future.
Net
zero commitments have doubled
during the last year.
But after commitments come the difficulties and
opportunities of reducing emissions while
simultaneously building resilience and
regenerating nature. The Dialogues will open
with Climate
& Health,
followed by Industry, Transport, Oceans, Coastal
Zones & Water,
Nature
Based Solutions & Land Use,
Energy,
Food & Agriculture, Youth,
Cities, Regions & Built Environment, before
closing with Finance.
Leaders
from diverse regions will share their best
practices and lessons learned from their net
zero journeys, and stakeholders from various
sectors and levels of government will grapple
with the obstacles and opportunities for
achieving net zero. The events will feed into
the UNFCCC’s
Climate Dialogues
from November 23 to December 4, which focus on
setting the governing rules underpinning the
Paris Agreement, and look ahead to when
governments ratchet up their Paris climate plans
in December.
| |
Mobilize
Virtual Summit:
A virtual gathering to reimagine the cities of
tomorrow,
with systems and policies to make cities around
the world more sustainable, fair, and livable.
Tune in from October 26 to 30.
Chile
2020 Green Hydrogen Summit: The
largest
hydrogen event
in Latin America, this virtual summit looks at
the opportunities and challenges posed by
hydrogen around the world. On November 3 and 4.
Local
Climate Solutions for Africa: ICLEI
Africa’s virtual
congress,
organized with the Covenant of Mayors in
Sub-Saharan Africa and others and co-hosted by
the Rwandan government, Kigali and the Rwandan
Association of Local Government Authorities,
from November 3 to 12.
Latin
American Regional Resilience Dialogue:
The
next in a series
of dialogues
between the High-Level Climate Champions and
people and organizations working on resilience
and adaptation to climate change in five
regions, held on November 5.
Green
Horizon Summit: Looking
at the role of
green finance
in the Covid-19 recovery, hosted by the City of
London Corporation and the Green Finance
Institute, and supported by the World Economic
Forum. From November 9 to 11.
Finance
in Common Summit:
Taking place November 9 to 12 in Paris and
online, the summit
will bring together the world’s Public
Development Banks to implement sustainable
recovery measures that will have a long-term
impact on the planet and societies.
London
Climate Action Week: London’s
cultural institutions, policymakers,
professionals, communities, faith leaders and
academics and researchers discuss
solutions
for the transition to an equitable net zero
world. From November 14 to 20.
Sustainable
Innovation Forum: UN
officials, environment ministers and business
and NGO leaders will
talk about
how to maintain momentum for the net zero
transition up to COP26 in 2021. From November 16
to 20.
| |
Unlocking
South Africa’s hydrogen potential: South
Africa’s immense potential to generate renewable
energy and green hydrogen could unlock whole new
industries and make the country a major producer
and exporter of hydrogen-based fuels, chemicals
and products, PwC said
in a report. This
would create countless jobs and raise foreign
currency earnings.
Covid-19
recovery offers Africa a clean energy
opportunity: Economic
stimulus packages in African countries are
giving rise to independent funding for clean
energy companies, which could give the
continent’s renewables sector a significant
boost, according to a new
study
on energy sector responses to Covid-19 in
Africa. However, most government stimulus
packages reviewed did not explicitly outline
strategies for the clean energy
transition.
The
climate transition risk facing banks:
Looking
at the climate risks facing banks in terms of
all sectors that rely on fossil fuels — such as
agriculture, manufacturing, transport and
finance itself — reveals a much greater exposure
than most are disclosing, according to a
report
by Ceres.
The report lays out a blueprint and
recommendations for avoiding what could amount
to hundreds of billions of US dollars in losses
and trigger another financial crisis.
China’s
roadmap to zero by 2060: Meeting
China’s new pledge
for net zero emissions by 2060 should include
targets for the 14th Five-Year Plan from 2021,
such as boosting the share of non-fossil fuels
in primary energy consumption to 20 percent and
a setting carbon emissions cap of less than 10.5
billion tonnes, according to research by
Tsinghua University’s Institute for Climate
Change and Sustainable Development.
Chile’s
net zero earnings: The
country could earn up to $110 billion by 2050 if
it meets its goal for net zero emissions by
2050, Chilean Environment Minister Carolina
Schmidt said.
Take social and health benefits into account and
the sum could grow fivefold, as half of the
Chilean population lives in highly polluted
areas, she added.
Japan’s
oldest steel mill turns to recycling:
Nippon
Steel Corporation, which has been making steel
from mined iron and coal in blast furnaces for
over a century, is looking to recycle steel from
scrap in an electric-arc furnace, Bloomberg reported.
Electric-arc furnaces are estimated to cost a
20th of a blast furnace to build and to emit a
fourth of the CO2.
Polish
utility pivots from coal to renewables:
PGE,
the country’s largest utility, said it wants to
get rid of its coal assets and invest in
renewables en route to reaching net zero
emissions by 2050, Climate
Home News reported.
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