Ending global dependence on fossil fuels to protect people’s health is critical, urged a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, leading academics and the head of the planet’s foremost public health agency, as hundreds of health professionals and organisations from around the world signed a groundbreaking open letter last week, reports Daily Maverick.
“The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), in a statement affirming his support for a plan outlined in the letter, signed by more than 1 000 health professionals and 200 health organisations across the globe.
Other signatories include global health heavyweights like the World Medical Association, the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment, and the World Federation of Public Health Associations.
The letter calls on governments to urgently develop and implement a “Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty” – a legally binding international pact to “end global dependence on fossil fuels” and “protect the health of people around the world”.
The mooted treaty finds inspiration in the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The framework, the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO, was developed in response to the “globalisation of the tobacco epidemic” and is an “evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health”.
In a similar vein, the proposed treaty would be an “evidence-based international agreement to control a category of substances well-known to be harmful to human health: coal, oil and gas”.
The letter describes several threats fossil fuels pose to planetary and human health:
• Air pollution, most significantly from burning fossil fuels, causes more than 7m premature deaths annually and contributes to cardiovascular disease, respiratory conditions and cancers. Wildfires, made increasingly intense and common by climate change, add to this burden.
• The warming climate creates ideal conditions for the transmission of food and water-borne diseases and spread of vector-borne diseases, undermining decades of progress in global public health.
• Climate change increases the risk of heat-related illness and death, especially for children, outdoor workers, athletes, and older adults.
• Droughts, floods, extreme weather events and sea level rise caused by climate change disrupt livelihoods, pollute water, jeopardise food security, damage infrastructure and force migration, especially for populations on small islands, coastal regions and low-lying areas.
• Extreme weather events disrupt global medical supply chains and devastate healthcare facilities.
• Climate change is taking a serious toll on mental health, exacerbating anxiety and depression, especially in young people.
Sir Andy Haines, professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said “rapid progress towards net zero emissions is essential to protect health in the face of escalating impacts of climate change”.
“The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty has potential to accelerate the pace and scale of climate action for health. We know emissions have to be slashed to limit warming to safe levels; we know fossil fuels are the greatest driver of emissions, and we know that phasing out fossil fuels is the only way to reap many of the health co-benefits of climate mitigation, so why are governments permitting new drilling, new mining and new pipelines?” asked Dr Liz Hanna, the Chair for Environmental Health of the World Federation of Public Health Associations.
Dr Ira Helfand, immediate past president at International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, said “the two overriding issues of our era – the climate crisis and the danger of nuclear war – are deeply intertwined”.
“The climate crisis is leading to greater international conflict and a growing risk of nuclear war, which will cause catastrophic, abrupt climate disruption. The world must unite to prevent both of these threats,” said Helfand.
Dr Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, said: “Fossil fuels are not just toxic to people’s health – every stage of the fossil fuel cycle puts people’s health at risk… from mining and fracking to transport through pipelines, to processing, and finally to burning fossil fuels for transport, electricity and industrial use.
Alternatives
“For decades we’ve depended on their capacity to provide energy, but we now have alternatives that are cleaner and more sustainable, and compatible with the healthier future we want.
“Access to clean energy is vital for lifting people out of poverty, supporting economic development, delivering education and healthcare, and many other determinants of health.”
Miller added that “high income countries have benefited from the past 100-plus years of fossil fuel use”.
“These countries have the resources and moral responsibility not only to make the clean energy transition, but to support developing countries to do the same, so that we can phase out poverty and health inequities while ending dependency on fossil fuels.
“Air pollution kills 7m people a year worldwide, while more than 90% of people live in places that exceed World Health Organisation limits for air pollution. Phasing out fossil fuels would prevent 3.6m air pollution deaths per year, an immense near-term health benefit to achieve the steps essential to mitigating climate change in the long term.”
Premature deaths
South Africa’s Dr Lwando Maki, a public medicine specialist and internal medicine doctor, said: “The impact of fossil fuels on health is increasing, with millions of families losing parents, siblings, sons or daughters prematurely… There is a need for governments globally to consider plans to address the use of fossil fuels; these will factor in development and economy, but there must be an end point.”
Dr Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Centre for Environmental Health at the Public Health Foundation of India, described “a just, healthy and rapid transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources” as being imperative both for human and planetary health.
“The entire life cycle of fossil fuels, from mining, fracking, combustion and disposal of end products, is fraught with health hazards. A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty will provide critical and timely impetus to our efforts to address air pollution and the climate crisis.
“Safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of communities involved in coal mining must also receive attention.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Scientists discover how air pollution triggers cells into cancerous states
One in six people dying prematurely from air pollution
Forest and crop fires destroy DNA in lungs cells
Air pollution cuts life expectancy by far more than thought