Health Warning: Operate on Climate Change

Failure to tackle climate change could be catastrophic for health, the heads of 18 doctors’ associations warned in a joint appeal published in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, urging governments to act decisively to roll back the threat from global warming. Representatives of the world’s 17 biggest carbon polluters have kicked off a week of high-stakes talks on climate change with a discussion at the US State Department.

Failure to tackle climate change at a key United Nations conference in Copenhagen could be catastrophic for health, the heads of 18 doctors’ associations warned yesterday.

In a joint appeal published in the British Medical Journal and The Lancet, they urged governments to act decisively to roll back the threat from global warming.

Scientists have repeatedly warned climate change could affect health in many ways, ranging from malnutrition caused by drought to the risk of cholera from flooding and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases to temperate zones.

”Doctors must take a lead in speaking out. There is a real danger that politicians will be indecisive, especially in such turbulent economic times as these. Should their response be weak, the results for international health could be catastrophic,” the doctors’ letter said.

The December 7 to 18 meeting under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to set down action for tackling heat-trapping carbon emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The letter was signed by the presidents of 18 colleges of physicians or academies of medicine from Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ireland, South Africa and Scotland.

Meanwhile, in a challenge to US President Barack Obama before a key international summit in Pittsburgh, the European Union presidency in Brussels said the US must do more to tackle climate change.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said, ”I hope to speed up the talks all over the climate issue.”

He acknowledged a promise by Japan’s incoming prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to target 25 per cent cuts in greenhouse emissions, but said he was less impressed by US efforts so far.

The EU prides itself on taking the lead in the battle against climate change, with member states agreeing to make 20 per cent cuts in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels. EU leaders are seeking a more ambitious global goal at the Copenhagen talks and are ready to commit to 30 per cent cuts if the rest of the world does likewise to attain the overall goal of restricting global warming to 2 degrees.

”We are worried because the sum of the initiatives taken so far is not enough to meet the 2-degree target,” Mr Reinfeldt said.

He also stressed the need for the financial commitments to support those efforts and to adapt to the climate change which was already inevitable.

In a draft communique drawn up for an EU summit today, European leaders say ”each country that has not yet done so should make urgently ambitious commitments to mid-term reductions and quantifiable actions” on emissions.

Money set aside for the climate fight ”will need to be scaled up urgently and substantially”. Richer nations should also contribute to financing the fight against climate change in developing nations.

The European Commission estimates the cost of fighting global warming for developing countries will reach 100 billion euros ($A170billion) a year by 2020.

Pressure is mounting for a breakthrough in what has been dubbed Climate Week, which also opens in Washington today with a ministerial-level gathering of the world’s largest 17 carbon polluters.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon will host a climate summit in New York next week, to be followed by a two-day G20 summit in Pittsburgh. AFP

Source: www.canberratimes.com.au

From AFP correspondents in Washington (18 September 2009):  

REPRESENTATIVES of the world’s 17 biggest carbon polluters have kicked off a week of high-stakes talks on climate change with a discussion at the US State Department.

The main aim of the week of meetings is to bridge differences ahead of the UN December 7-18 climate change conference in Copenhagen, where a pact for curbing global warming beyond 2012 – when Kyoto Protocol obligations on cutting emissions expire – is to be crafted.

Negotiators will meet for two days at the State Department in Washington, then move to New York next week and then on to Pittsburgh.

The meetings come as Washington tries to resume a leadership role on climate change, and follow a warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon that world leaders need to “get moving” on climate change.

Representatives from the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Britain were at the State Department talks on Thursday, along with officials representing Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and host, the United States.

The participants belong to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, an initiative US President Barack Obama launched in March – a sharp change from the policies of his predecessor George W. Bush, who rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the previous UN framework on climate change.

Together the countries are responsible for 80 per cent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The talks today and Saturday “will focus primarily on key areas of mitigation, adaptation and technology”, the official said.

Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au