A group of leading international experts has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the climate crisis a global public health emergency, warning that failure to act could result in millions of unnecessary deaths. The independent pan-European Commission on Climate and Health, convened by the WHO, concluded that the climate crisis poses such a worldwide threat to health that it warrants designation as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Why a PHEIC Is Necessary
The commission's report, presented to European ministers ahead of the WHO's World Health Assembly, cites the international spread of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, alongside the health impacts of extreme weather events, global heating, food insecurity, and air pollution as justification for the declaration. PHEICs represent the highest level of health alert, previously used for infectious diseases like COVID-19 and Mpox. While a PHEIC alone would not reverse climate change, it would trigger a coordinated international response that the scale of the health crisis demands but has yet to materialise.
Immediate and Long-Term Threats
The 11-member independent commission, comprising former health and climate ministers, stated: "Far from being a fading priority or fake news, climate change poses an immediate and long-term threat to health, economic, food, water, environmental, personal, community, and national security." Katrín Jakobsdóttir, former Prime Minister of Iceland and chair of the commission, emphasised: "The climate crisis may not be a pandemic, but it is still a public health emergency that threatens humanity's very health and survival. If we do not act more quickly and comprehensively, many millions more people could die or face life-changing illness."
Accelerating Risks
Sir Andrew Haines, Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the commission's chief scientific adviser, noted: "WHO has already recognised that climate change is a major threat to global health. What we are asking for is a step further." He added: "If we continue emitting at current rates, that will accelerate the risks to health for both current and future generations, including more people suffering and dying from excess heat, floods, infectious diseases, air pollution from wildfires, more preterm births, and more food insecurity."
Stop Subsidising Fossil Fuels
The commission also urged governments to end subsidies for fossil fuels, which directly contribute to 600,000 premature deaths annually in Europe alone. The report highlights that the region spends approximately €444 billion (£387 billion) per year on subsidies for oil and gas production. In 12 European countries, fossil fuel subsidies exceeded 10% of national health expenditure in 2023, and in four countries, they surpassed the entire health budget. Jakobsdóttir described this as "not a sustainable energy policy" but "a public health failure," warning that new subsidies and redrilling efforts could have catastrophic health consequences.
Disinformation and Mental Health
The report also calls for measures to tackle disinformation, greater use of national climate health impact assessments, and recognition that climate change constitutes a mental health crisis. Jakobsdóttir stated: "The way to challenge climate scepticism and misinformation is simple: make it personal. Climate change is not happening somewhere else, to someone else, in the future. It is shortening lives in European cities right now. It is filling hospitals. It is driving anxiety and stress and other mental health issues." She emphasised that policies to fix the climate, such as clean air, active travel, insulated homes, and sustainable food, also make people healthier and happier today.
Healthcare System Resilience
The report recommends that countries strengthen their healthcare systems to cope with a rapidly changing environment. Haines pointed out that hospitals are often built on floodplains and lack energy efficiency, struggling during extreme heatwaves. Even in temperate countries like the UK, many hospitals were designed before climate change and face challenges. The healthcare sector accounts for 5% of global emissions, so adaptation is a priority.
International Response
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, responded: "The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have clearly shown what fossil fuel dependency really means: not just higher bills, but strained or broken health systems, disrupted food and fuel supplies, and societies under pressure. The case for acting on climate now is not just environmental. It is a security argument, a health argument, and an economic argument, all at once. And it is a moral imperative." He committed to treating climate change as a health emergency across the 53 member states of the WHO European region.
Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, welcomed the report, stating: "The current state of the planet, where we are breaching multiple planetary boundaries, and which manifests itself as public health threats impacting millions of people across the world, provides ample scientific evidence that climate change should be declared a public health emergency of international concern."
