The Health Argument for Climate Action: Special Focus on Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health
The climate crisis is a health crisis - and progress on children's health globally is in danger of being reversed.
A lack of progress in reducing emissions and building adaptive capacity threatens both human lives, the human right to health and the viability of national health systems. Additionally, the same human activities that are destabilizing the Earth’s climate also contribute directly to poor health. Children have unique vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible, directly and indirectly, to climate-related hazards compared to other populations: they breath more rapidly, they have poorer thermal regulation, and their bodily systems shaping their immunity and cognitive function are still developing.
At this High-Level Party Event at COP29, WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden will be hosting a dialogue along with Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez and youth advocates to explore the health argument for climate action, why it should always center its focus on maternal, newborn and child populations globally, and how child and youth can contribute to informing critical climate and health policies, advocacy, and progress. They will also speak to the role of health determined sectors and how children's environmental health can be prioritized through existing collaborative platforms.
Speakers:
- Pedro Sánchez, Spain Prime Minister
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
- Dr. Maria Neira, WHO Director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department
- Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director
- Yalchin Rafiyev, Lead Negotiator for COP29 Azerbaijan
- Dr. Tobias Alfvén, Senior researcher in Global Health at the Department of Public Health Sciences at Karolinska Institutet
- Abheet Solomon, UNICEF Senior Advisor of Environment
- Enkhuun Byambador, youth advocate from Mongolia
- Lucky Andrianirina, youth advocate from Madagascar