Download the PDF version of the statement here.

18 November 2024, on the occasion of the COP29 Health Day

For the first time in 2023, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change dedicated a full day to Health on 3 December 2023.

On the occasion of that COP28 Health Day and in recognition of the ‘impact of climate change on health [as] an urgent and demanding public health emergency,’ the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) issued a statement with a Call for Action in Seven Points  issued from ‘our member community of Schools of Public Health [to] draw policymakers’ and citizens’ attention to seven specific requirements to reduce the impacts of the effects of climate change and protect public health’:

1. Recognition of the linkage between Climate Change and Health.

2. An integrated global approach to Climate Change and Health.

3. Solidarity across countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reducing the impacts of Climate Change on Health.

4. Reducing the impact of Climate Change on Health inequalities.

5. Training and capacity building in Climate Change and Health for multiple stakeholders.

6. Well-funded interventional transdisciplinary research on Climate Change and Health.

7. Advocacy on Climate Change and Health.

Now, in the context of the COP29, ASPHER reminds the global community of these critical action points, which remain valid more than ever after another year when populations worldwide witnessed catastrophic climate events, which prompted the UN Secretary General’s opening remarks of warning: ‘2024 has shown climate calamity is now commonplace. This is on track to be the hottest year in the history books. It has scorched countries and communities with temperatures that push the limits of human endurance. And around the world, we've seen record rains and hurricanes, historic fires, and deadly droughts.’

ASPHER stays committed to support our call, actively pursuing the action points through the efforts of the ASPHER Climate and Health Task Force as well as the broader initiatives of the Association.

The Association is fostering deeper cooperation with our partners including the European Climate and Health Observatory (ECHO), the Global Consortium on Climate Change and Health Education (GCCHE), the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), the European Public Health Association  (EUPHA)   and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO-EURO) . 

As an Association of Schools of Public Health, we are taking concerted action to address training and capacity building in Climate Change and Health. Together with GCCHE we ran a highly successful 10-week online European Climate and Health Responder Course for Public Health and Health Professionals with over 3500 participants. This will be followed up in 2025 with the European Climate Resilient Health Systems Course.

Based on survey data from ASPHER and GCCHE and through collaboration with ECHO, we are creating a European indicator on climate and health education and building an online database resource for education and training where materials may be deposited and professionals can connect an share opportunities for continuing professional development. 

The Association has launched a new Core Curriculum in Public Health for Europe to support academic and vocational training programmes, which includes chapters on Planetary, Environmental and Climate Health; and One Health. 

In spite of the professionally unacceptable but still existing climate change scepticism, Climate and health must be on top of the agenda of international meetings and conferences in keeping with the priority, considering its myriad impacts on population health and wellbeing. The annual European Public Health (EPH) Conference, which ASPHER partners, has already taken this step, dedicating the theme of the 2025 meeting in Helsinki to ‘Investing for Sustainable Health and Wellbeing’ echoing EUPHA’s Statement for Inclusive and Equitable Climate Action: Building a Sustainable Future for All.

Having pledged itself to these seven action points on Climate Change and Health, ASPHER calls anew on schools and institutions of public health training, partners, the global health, planetary health, workplace health and public health communities, and all concerned global citizens to join us. We fully support the WHO Director General's statement  that ‘There is no stronger argument for climate action than health,’ also underlined in the recently published WHO COP29 special report.