Health

Dual-Action, Triple Win: Addressing the Converging Health and Climate Crises

Both weigh on the health systems, both aggravate existing inequalities, both have huge economic impacts. COVID-19 and climate change are crisis that need to be tackled together, because “we do not have the luxury of taking one crisis at a time”. The 2020 Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate Change told by one of its authors.

When health is taken into account, reducing emissions is an opportunity, not a cost

Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could save about a million lives a year worldwide by 2050 through reductions in air pollution alone, according to the World Health Organization. Health gains from climate action would be approximately double the cost of mitigation policies at the global level, and the benefit is even higher in countries such as China and India.