Fossil Fuels – WMA – The World Medical Association

Adopted by the 71^st WMA General Assembly (online), Cordoba, Spain, October 2020

PREAMBLE

Exponential increase in the number of climate change related fires, hurricanes, ice meltdowns, heat waves and deforestation, especially of the rainforests, show that there is no time to waste. There is an urgent need to accelerate the efforts that will trigger the changes to be implemented by international and national policy and decision makers in order to stop as well as to adapt to the climate crisis.

Climate change and air pollution are closely connected, both have huge impacts on human health and result from anthropogenic emissions due to the combustion of fossil fuels. As it is mentioned by international bodies such as Clean Air Initiative founded by the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC); all governments, researchers and non-governmental organisations should urgently start to tackle the air pollution and climate crisis together.

Considering the urgency and complexity of climate change, it is needed to create a global change to stop the causes of this crisis. Therefore, WMA calls on international, national, regional or provincial decision makers such as politicians, policy makers and judges to recognize the urgency, complexity, and interconnectedness of the essence of the climate crisis action and to take immediate action in order to protect the rights of future generations for the sake of climate justice.

Climate crisis causes a serious loss, damage or destruction of ecosystems and cultural damage, which has severe impacts on all inhabitants of the world. In order to ensure the right to live for the future generations, there is an imminent need for binding legal measures to be adopted and implemented at the national and international arena against the polluters causing emissions that cause especially climate crisis as well as air, water and soil pollution.

Health professionals have a duty to care, respect and protect the human life, as well as the right to live for future generations and all forms of the natural living world. WMA believes that all people, including future generations, have the right to the environmental, economic and social resources needed for healthy and productive lives; such as clean air, soil, water and food security. Therefore; WMA has a historical responsibility of acting proactively in order to initiate the necessary changes and solutions to struggle with the climate crisis.

RECOMMENDATIONS

WMA proposes the following recommendations to its members and other related organizations:

Urge to ask its members to collaborate with relevant bodies in their countries in order to raise awareness about the necessity for legally binding sanctions and policies at the national and international level for the polluters that threaten the right to live for the future generations by emitting gases which are proven to cause climate crisis and air, soil and water pollution.
Urge all national governments, policy makers, researchers and health professionals to mobilize in order to develop and implement comprehensive policies to struggle with the problems due to the use of fossil fuels by industry as well as the individuals that lead to problems such as climate crisis air, water and soil pollution.
Urge all medical professionals, media, governmental and non – governmental institutions to refer climate change as ‘climate crisis’ and calls the leaders of national, state or provincial, regional, city, and local governments to declare a climate emergency in order to initiate a society-wide action. Moreover, encourage the media to promote the concept and meaning of the right to live for future generations.
Update the curriculum at medical schools and add compulsory sections on environmental health in order to educate health professionals that are able to think critically about the health impacts of the environmental problems, are aware of the reasons, impacts/dimensions of the climate crisis and able to offer solutions designed to protect the rights and health of future generations.
Advocate and organize interdisiplinary campaigns in order to stop the new permissions from being given to the industrial facilities using fossil fuels that cause climate crisis and pollution.
Urge national governments and international bodies such as WHO to adopt stricter regulations on environmental protection and evaluation, permission, monitoring and control procedures of new industrial facilities to limit the health impact resulting from their emissions.
Advocate actively for policies that will maximize health benefits by reducing air pollutants (such as ground ozone and particulate matter etc.) and carbon emissions, increase walking, cycling, and use of public transport, and consumption of nutritious, plant-rich diets to ensure climate justice. Urge international, national, state or provincial, regional, city, and local governments to adopt and implement air quality and climate change policies that will achieve the WHO Ambient Air Quality Guideline values.
Urge national, state or provincial, regional, city, and local governments through public campaigns and advocacy to cut subsidies given to fossil fuel industries and to direct these subsidies to support just transition, energy efficiency measures, green energy resources and public welfare.
Urge governments and private sector to invest in policies that support a just transition for workers and communities adversely impacted by the move to a low-carbon economy and to build social protection through investment in and transition to green jobs.
Urge national, state or provincial, regional, city, and local governments to act on other causes of climate crisis such as industrial agriculture, animal husbandry and deforestation, to promote legal trade and financing policies that prioritize and enable sustainable agro-ecological practices, end deforestation for the expansion of industrial agriculture and to reduce reliance on industrial animal-based agriculture and environmentally damaging agricultural and fisheries practices.
Urge national, state or provincial, regional, city, and local governments to invest in human capacity and knowledge infrastructure to spread regenerative agriculture solutions that can produce the change needed while providing myriad co-benefits to farmers and consumers, providing a global support network – on the ground – for farmers and capturing carbon in the soil. Emphasize building resilient and regenerative local food systems that can reduce carbon emissions, support the livelihoods of agricultural communities and provide food security for future generations.
Urge national governments, together with the involvement of health sector, to develop national adaptation plans and to conduct national assessments of climate crisis impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation for health.

Adopted by the 67^th WMA General Assembly, Taipei, Taiwan, October 2016

PREAMBLE

As noted by the 65th World Medical Assembly in Durban in 2014, physicians around the world are aware that fossil fuel air pollution reduces quality of life for millions of people worldwide, causing a substantial burden of disease, economic loss, and costs to health care systems.

According to World Health Organization data, in 2012, approximately “7 million people died, one in eight of total global deaths, as a result of air pollution” (WHO, 2014).

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that global economic and population growth, relying on an increased use of coal, continues to be the most important driver of increases in Carbon Dioxide emissions. These emissions are the major component of an accelerating the amount of human fossil fuel Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions despite the adoption of climate change mitigation policies (IPCC, 2014).

The burden of disease arising from Climate Change will be differentially distributed across the globe and, while it will affect everyone, the most marginal populations will be the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and have the least capacity for adaptation.

BACKGROUND

In many densely settled populated cities around the world, the fine dust measurable in the air is up to 50 times higher than the WHO recommendations. A high volume of transport, power generated from coal, and pollution caused by construction equipment are among the contributing factors (WMA, SMAC 197, Air Pollution WMA Statement on the Prevention of Air pollution due to Vehicle Emissions 2014).

Evidence from around the world shows that the effects of climate change and its extreme weather are having significant and sometimes devastating impacts on human health. Fourteen of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred in the first 15 years of this century (World Meteorological Organization 2014). The vulnerable among us including children, older adults, people with heart or lung disease, and people living in poverty are most at risk from these changes.

The WMA notes the Lancet Commission’s description of Climate Change as “the greatest threat to human health of the 21st century”, and that the Paris agreement at COP21 on Climate calls upon governments “when taking action on climate change” to “respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights (and) the right to health”.

As the WMA states in its Delhi Declaration on Health and Climate Change, “Although governments and international organizations have the main responsibility for creating regulations and legislation to mitigate the effects of climate change and to help their populations adapt to it, the World Medical Association, on behalf of (…) its physician members, feels an obligation to highlight the health consequences of climate change and to suggest solutions. (…) The WMA and NMAs should develop concrete actionable plans/practical steps” to both mitigate and adapt to climate change (WMA 2009).

RECOMMENDATIONS

The WMA recommends that its national medical associations and all health organizations:

Continue to educate health scientists, businesses, civil society, and governments concerning the benefits to health of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advocate for the incorporation of health impact assessments into economic policy.
Encourage governments to adopt strategies that emphasize strict environmental regulations and standards that encourage energy companies to move toward renewable fuel sources.
Begin a process of transferring their investments, when feasible without damage, from energy companies whose primary business relies upon extraction of, or energy generation from, fossil fuels to those generating energy from renewable energy sources.
Strive to invest in companies upholding the environmental principles consistent with the United Nations Global Compact (www.unglobalcompact.org), and refrain from investing in companies that do not adhere to applicable legislation and conventions regarding environmental responsibility.