Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change | The Lancet and University College London
The Lancet is a peer-reviewed general medical journal. Selected quotes:
Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
Climate change also raises the issue of intergenerational justice. The inequity of climate change – with the rich causing most of the problem and the poor initially suffering most of the consequences – will prove to be a source of historical shame to our generation if nothing is done to address it.
Luxury emissions are different from survival emissions, which emphasises the need for a strategy of contraction and convergence, whereby rich countries rapidly reduce emissions and poor countries can increase emissions to achieve health and development gain, both having the same sustainable emissions per person.
Climate has no respect for national borders or nation-specific government. Global governance will, therefore, be a central feature of any discussion of climate change and health.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation are essential elements to overall development policy. They are not separate issues that can be divided from the agenda for poverty alleviation or for closing the gap on social inequalities and health.
The most urgent need is to empower poor countries, and local government and local communities everywhere, to understand climate implications and to take action.
