WHO Europe countries repeat pledge to address climate change health impacts

Ministers of Health and Environment of the WHO European Region recognised the need for further action to fight climate change that affects human health by signing the Budapest declaration on Friday (7 July).

Lawmakers recognised their alarm “by the substantial and persistent burden of ill health due to environmental risk factors” in the Seventh WHO European Region Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health celebrated in Budapest (5-7 July), where they discussed the future and the priorities of the region, focusing on addressing the health dimensions of the environmental crisis. 

As evidenced in the European Sustainable Development Report 2022, since the COVID pandemic, the progress towards the objectives of the Agenda 2030 has stalled. 

To stir the conversation, they signed the Budapest Declaration, a series of commitments to promote a clean, safe and healthy built environment. 

In it, lawmakers commit to “accelerate the just transition towards resilient, healthy, equitable and sustainable societies, taking into account the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic”. 

The text prioritises action on health challenges related to climate change. Highlighting the need to strengthen the health sector’s engagement and put environmental factors at the centre of the global health agenda.

The declaration also includes recommendations to improve the climate literacy of health workers, decarbonise health systems, implement appropriate waste management, and switch to zero-emission transport systems.

Air pollution kills 1,200 children a year: EU agency

Air pollution still causes more than 1,200 premature deaths a year in under 18’s across Europe and increases the risk of chronic disease later in life, the EU environmental agency said Monday (24 April).

Need for action 

“The good news is that we have a shared global vision, where we would like to see ourselves in seven years, ten years, fifteen years, and we expressed it in forms of agreements”, Csaba Kőrösi, president of the UN General Assembly, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda 2030. 

In September 2015, all UN countries signed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Despite the initial consensus, the European implementation is taking longer than expected.

“As a region, we are moving far too slow towards achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030”, stated Hans Kluge, WHO’s Europe regional director, in Budapest. 

As already seen in the EU plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), lawmakers emphasise the need to take a One Health approach in policy-making, ensuring the inclusion of human, animal and plant health and their interactions with the environment.

Brigit Staatsen, chair of WHO’s Bureau of the European Environment and Health Task Force, explained that it is important for lawmakers to sit and think, “What are the future priorities for environment and health in regions, and what are the actions that need to be taken now”. 

The environmental impacts on reproductive health

An aspect of reproductive health which is still relatively neglected is the impact on fertility of E(-nvironmental) factors such as air pollution, organic pollutants, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals on fertility.

Growing threats  

“The chances to see a massive pandemic that would be as devastating as COVID within twenty-five years is about 52%”, alerted Kőrösi. 

He added that the question now is not whether or not we are going to face similar challenges in our societies but when would they come and how well prepared we will be. 

This may sound catastrophic, but according to experts, climate change already shows that it can greatly affect human health. 

WHO’s data shows that every year an estimated 1.4 million deaths in Europe are linked to environmental risk factors. 

Rising temperatures and biodiversity decline are strongly linked to increases in the risk of zoonotic diseases, those that are transmitted from animals to humans, like Zika or dengue. 

Higher temperatures stimulate the reproduction of both pathogens and vectors, the carriers of the disease, and biodiversity loss threats the ‘dilution effect’, this is when the diversity of an ecological community helps to reduce the spread of a pathogen. 

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) alerted that Europe is facing a massive increase of disease-carrying mosquitoes in previously unaffected countries. Their data shows West Nile virus infection and dengue have increased in the past year. 

In 2022, over 1,133 human cases and 92 deaths of West Nile virus infection were reported in the EU, of which 1,112 were locally acquired in 11 countries, the highest number of cases since the peak epidemic year in 2018. 

In the same period, dengue accounts for 71 locally acquired cases, the equivalent of the total number of cases reported between 2010 and 2021. 

In both cases, these diseases are caused by mosquitos, an animal whose life is tightly linked to the environment. 

[Edited by Giedrė Peseckytė/Alice Taylor]

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