Better Health For All

Today (Sunday) is a day of rest at COP 26.  That is, in the formal Presidential Programme, but there are still plenty of ‘side’ events happening.

I have had a few interesting days at COP 26 so far. It is VERY busy with many parallel sessions and activities going on, both inside the main blue zone and in the green zone and at satellite meetings. It is quite hard (maybe impossible!) to follow the president’s programme and the negotiations as the ‘agenda’ for each day only appears late the night before, so it is difficult to plan. Also many of the ‘negotiation sessions’ are not really negotiations, but are a series of announcements about various initiatives and commitments that countries (and / or organisations) have signed up to, but the real question is whether they will deliver on them, as there is often only a headline and no tangible substance about delivery given.

There has been a calculation made that if ALL the pledges made so far are enacted then the figure reached would be 1.9 degrees Celsius, which is better than the calculated 2.7 for which we were previously on track  BUT still does not reach 1.5 degrees, AND there are certainly doubts that all the promised actions will be fulfilled. Previous promises have not been fulfilled.

At the Paris COP there was agreement that $100bn would be transferred, by 2020, from global north to those countries who needed to address climate change most (i.e. LMICs in global south) but that promise has not been fulfilled, although there is now a commitment to do so by 2023. (We shall see!) 

I was going to outline some highlights for me from the past few days, but I was just distracted listening (on you tube) to the first session of the People’s Health Hearing. It was amazing. Stories and testimonies from people who have suffered directly the impact of climate change. A testimony from the Philippines about the massive floods a year ago (November 2020), stories of having to sit on their roof until the water went down, of raw sewage and water pouring into their houses and trying to clear it up, of rashes and scars from contact dermatitis, of the mental health impacts of having to move house 4 times in the last year and most particularly of the inequalities (as we in Public Health would call it)  – of the peoples who have contributed least to global emissions being the most affected. Calling for ‘climate Justice’.

 And another story of how it was the removal of massive areas of trees, by extraction industry (mining etc. for natural resources including gold and fossil fuel), that caused the area to flood, and how the indigenous people, losing their homes and communities, livelihoods and lives, are now being gagged by their (and global north) governments who are still supporting the industries.

And yet another concerning mining, in an indigenous region – West Papua (west part of Papua New Guinea) about the devastation and pollution ruining their water supply and crops and an anthropologist from the community who was murdered, (together with 130 others from the community) – and how the family had to flee to the Netherlands – and that the anthropologist was the storyteller’s father. No wonder he is now an indigenous activist. But how does this link to Climate change, well through the need to protect forests and the staggering statistic that indigenous people populate 5% of the world’s land but their forests are responsible for nearly 90% of biodiversity. They have maintained that for 1000’s of years, living in harmony with nature, unlike western societies. We must learn from them and protect indigenous people and their lands, if we want to avert the climate crisis.

Very powerful stories, I do not do them justice here. And what I learn from this is that we must use stories and storytelling and we, as PH professionals, should learn more about storytelling, find the people who are directly affected and listen and learn from their experiences and utilise their experiences to influence policy makers and the climate and health agenda

Professor Sue Atkinson CBE
Chair, FPH Climate and Health Committee