Climate emergency: The polluters must pay

The UN’s annual climate summit, COP27, held this year in Egypt, has as its ultimate objective to avoid dangerous climate change—the greatest threat to health in the 21st century.1Public health clinicians are used to arguing the case for investing in the prevention of ill health while promoting good health, a clarion call which frequently falls on deaf ears despite the staggering savings that could be achieved in health budgets and avoided health harms.After 30 years of international negotiations, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise inexorably, and the predicted impacts are being felt around the world as floods, wildfires, drought, and heatwaves bring devastating impacts to human health, lives, and livelihoods. Public health has a clear role in highlighting the costs of the impact of climate change and benefits of taking action through well established metrics such as human health in years of life lost, disability adjusted life years, and quality…
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