Health is at the mercy of a fossil fuel addiction.
That’s the stark message from the seventh annual report of
the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, launched
in London today by the world’s highest-impact general
medical journal.
The report shows that greenhouse gas
emissions from the burning of fossil fuels reached a record
high last year, deepening the climate crisis and amplifying
the effects of energy shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic and
the cost-of-living crisis.
“A health-centred
response to these coexisting crises provides an opportunity
to deliver a healthy, low-carbon future”, said OraTaiao
Co-convenor Dr Dermot Coffey. “Without it, the burden of
the addiction to fossil fuels on our health will keep
rising.”
The Lancet Countdown report tracks 43
indicators of health and climate change, assessed by a panel
of global experts.
“Heat exposure is a growing
threat to health and wellbeing”, said Dr Coffey.
“Between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021, there has been a 68%
increase in heat-related mortality worldwide among people
over the age of 65. Even more concerning, deaths of New
Zealanders over 65 from heat exposure rose by
165%.”
“Rising temperatures are also reducing
working hours – and the livelihoods needed to sustain
people’s wellbeing – especially in agriculture. Heat
exposure led to 470 billion potential labour hours lost
globally in 2021, including 1.42 million hours lost in New
Zealand.”
OraTaiao Co-Convenor Summer Wright said
the report reinforces the urgent need to transform our food
systems to support a healthy, low-carbon diet. “Globally,
55% of agricultural sector emissions come from red meat and
dairy production, which is also leading to 11.5 million
diet-related deaths annually.”
“Here in Aotearoa,
the figures are proportionately higher. An accelerated
transition to more plant-based diets would not only help to
cut the 71% of agricultural emissions produced by farm
animals, it would also reduce the 3,400 deaths attributable
each year to high consumption of red meat, processed meat,
and dairy products.”
“OraTaiao will convey this
message as strongly as possible in our upcoming submission
on the Government’s proposals for pricing agricultural
emissions, and calls on other health professionals to do the
same. It is already being seen that the costs of inaction in
agriculture will be borne above all by vulnerable groups,
including rural communities, Māori, disabled people,
children, and people living with low
incomes.”
“Extreme weather events around the world
caused damage worth US$253 billion last year”, said Dr
Coffey. “This includes damage to hospitals and other
health care facilities. Extreme weather here in July caused
the 1-in-100 year floods in Nelson and on the West Coast,
forcing the evacuation of the rural Buller Hospital. The
nearby hospital in Greymouth sits on the coast and just
above sea level, too. Other hospitals vulnerable to flooding
and sea level rise include Middlemore, which serves the
Māori and Pacific communities of South
Auckland.”
“Urgent action is needed to strengthen
our health-system resilience and to prevent loss of lives
and suffering in a changing climate. And yet New Zealand is
one of 47 countries which have not yet assessed the
adaptation needs of their health systems. OraTaiao repeats
the call we made in our submission on the National
Adaptation Plan for an urgent assessment of health sector
resilience and a Health National Adaptation
Plan.”
“The week after next”, said Ms Wright,
“the New Zealand Government delegation will be heading
into the COP27 conference in Egypt. These talks will focus
on delivering the goal of the Paris Agreement – to limit
global warming to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial
levels.
“Current commitments from countries are not
up to the task. The world is on track to a catastrophic
2.7°C increase by the end of the century, with an untold
burden of disease. Despite growing recognition of the
health-climate change nexus, New Zealand is one of 65
countries with no mention of health at all in our Nationally
Determined Contribution under the Paris
Agreement.
“In this pivotal moment”, said Ms
Wright, “a health-centred response to the current crises
would still provide the opportunity for a low-carbon,
resilient future, which not only avoids the health harms of
accelerated climate change, but also delivers improved
health and wellbeing through the associated co-benefits of
climate action.”
OraTaiao calls on the New Zealand
Government to put health at the centre of all climate
discussions and heed the words of former Prime Minister
Helen Clark at today’s launch of the Lancet Countdown
Report:
“The evidence produced by the Lancet
Countdown shows the many and immediate benefits which
accelerated climate action would bring about. We could save
millions of lives a
year.”
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