Thammasat University students interested in allied health sciences, climate change, ecology, environmental studies, development studies, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 28 October Zoom webinar on Galvanizing health actors as protagonists in climate action.
The event, on Monday, 28 October 2024 at 5pm Bangkok time, is presented by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
Its website explains:
Climate crisis mitigation is essential to the health systems response to climate crisis. This webinar will explore the role health systems researchers, policymakers and health care workers can play in promoting a fast, just, and funded phase out of fossil fuels, a key and under-addressed commercial determinant of health inequities.
As with much of the action on the social and commercial determinants of health, health systems action on climate crisis has tended to focus on how to ameliorate harms and adapt to risks, rather than how to prevent and stop actual harm.
This webinar will discuss new research and identify strategies for health systems actors to be protagonists in addressing the climate crisis, and discuss opportunities for coalition building, including the perceived barriers and commitments to action. The objectives of the webinar are the following:
- To become familiar with key trends in climate crisis mitigation.
- To learn about specific efforts where health systems actors in diverse roles became involved in climate action and a just transition.
- For participants to integrate those examples into their own context and consider how they can engage in climate action, knowledge generation and learning.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of health-related climate change issues.
Students are invited to register at this link:
https://unu-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xKMGIt83QAG384XuBPZH3g#/registration
The speakers will include:
- Remco van de Pas
UNU-IIGH
- Marta Schaaf
Amnesty International
- Paula Johns
ACT Health Promotion
- Mafoko Pomane
groundWork
- Sharon Friel
Planetary Health Equity Hothouse
The UNU website notes:
Dr. Remco van de Pas is the Research Lead for the Climate Justice and Determinants of Health workpackage at the United Nations University’s International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH).
Dr. Remco van de Pas is a public health doctor and an interdisciplinary global health researcher with 20 years of experience in public health practice and international cooperation, global health policy and academia.
His work focuses on health systems governance, climate crisis, post-growth economics and foreign policy. He has expertise in health workforce development, social protection and health financing, epidemic governance, climate policy, social and ecological determinants of health, human rights and justice, globalization and its political-economy.
Prior to joining UNU he was a research associate at the Centre for Planetary Health Policy in Berlin and Clingendael, Netherlands Institute of International Relations. He worked as a global health lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Maastricht University and SciencesPo. Before this, he held positions in civil society and the NGO sector (Wemos, Doctors of the World, People’s Health Movement). Remco practiced medicine in mental health services for refugees and migrants.
Research Interests
- (Global) health governance
- Civil society action and social movements
- Climate justice
- Post-growth strategies
- Essential public services
- Human ecology
- International solidarity
- Political determinants of health
- Feminism
- Decoloniality
Two years ago, he coauthored a policy brief which is available for free download, Health within planetary boundaries: Open questions for policymakers, scientists and health actors.
It begins:
To address the urgent planetary crises and to ensure the planet’s habitability for future generations, planetary health needs to be anchored as a vision in all policies at national and international levels. Experiences and lessons learned from other policy fields and other countries can be considered in strengthening prevention of and preparedness for planetary crises and their health risks.
To do so, we need to answer some urgent questions: 1) how can regulatory frameworks, structures, institutions, and incentives be adapted to make health within planetary boundaries the core goal of a comprehensive prevention policy and a public welfare-oriented care economy? 2) what role do conflicting goals and interests play in this context? 3) how can health equity and environmental justice be integrated into (health) policy decisions? 4) what forms of science communication, translation and generation are needed to accelerate the transformation towards health within planetary boundaries effectively?
Healthy people only exist on a healthy planet
Looking at the global development of human health in recent decades, a contradictory picture emerges: on the one hand, life expectancy – one of the main indicators of well-being – has risen and the proportion of undernourished people has tended to decline.1,2 On the other hand, this progress on health remains unevenly distributed both within and across countries and population groups.
While deaths from communicable diseases are decreasing globally, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are rapidly increasing in all countries.
The regional differences in the distribution of health and social advancements are significant but come at a high price: they endanger the habitability of the planet. In particular, the use of fossil fuels for energy generation and its impact on global warming but also changes in land and water use – especially for food production, the expansion of housing and infrastructure, the overexploitation of natural resources, the pollution and destruction of ecosystems and the associated loss of biodiversity are causing the overshooting of multiple planetary boundaries as well as human rights violations.
We are amidst multiple, escalating, systemic crises, both within natural and human systems. We describe these multidimensional crises that partially reinforce each other as planetary crises.
A safe scope and just scope for human well-being
To protect health and to preserve the habitability of the planet for future generations, planetary boundaries must not be exceeded any further. At the same time, the consequences of overshooting certain boundaries must be mitigated and reversed as far as possible. The medical journal, The Lancet, has identified the climate crisis as humankind’s greatest threat and its tackling as a major opportunity for human health and well-being in the 21st century. Regarding the transgression of the planetary boundary “climate change”, the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is clear:
“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”
The same can be said for other planetary boundaries. […]
Political, social, and economic processes and structures must therefore be designed and governed nationally, as well as internationally, with a focus on safeguarding health and well-being for present and future generations while also preserving the habitability of the planet.
The well-documented health effects of the planetary crises range from acute physical and psychological burdens caused by extreme weather events, the emergence and spread of new (zoonotic) infectious diseases, the effects of air pollution on various organs, to food insecurity and forced migration.
The exceeding of planetary boundaries affects us all, but not equally: disadvantaged and marginalised population groups in all regions of the world are most affected by these impacts, even though they have contributed least to their creation.
The richest 10% of the world’s population cause half of global greenhouse gas emissions and pose major challenges to global burden sharing. The consequences of planetary crises thus reinforce historical and persistent marginalisations, poverty risks, conflicts and thereby inequalities such as colonial continuities and gender inequities. […]
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)