Your Excellency Ambassador Stasch,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, and welcome. I am pleased to have the opportunity to meet with all of you today.
I thank Germany for organising this meeting.
Several years ago, I remember hearing my friend Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about his time as Governor of California, when there was a referendum on a proposition to roll back environmental regulations.
Initially, the polls indicated strong public support for the proposition, until Schwarzenegger's administration began a campaign that showed a child breathing through a ventilator, demonstrating the potential impact on health of relaxing the regulations.
The polls changed and the proposition was defeated.
Schwarzenegger is a strong advocate for using health as the most compelling argument for climate action.
Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are of course crucial issues, but for most people, they are distant threats, in both time and place.
The threats to health of our changing climate are here and now.
Climate action is essential for protecting health. Equally, protecting health is a powerful argument for climate action.
As you know, extreme weather events are becoming more and more frequent and severe - from floods in Pakistan, to droughts in Africa, to heatwaves this week in Latin America.
These disasters are affecting millions of people worldwide.
Already, we know that the pollutants pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels kill an estimated seven million people each year.
We are pleased to see increasing awareness among our Member States of the links between health and climate.
This has been an increasing area of focus for WHO.
At COP26 in Glasgow, we worked with our UK partners to launch the first health initiative under a UNFCCC Presidency.
65 countries have now committed to work towards more climate resilient and low-carbon health systems, with France and Lebanon joining just in the last week.
Together with the UK and Egypt at COP27 last year, we launched the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health - the ATACH - which brings together partner agencies to ensure that countries are supported in achieving these commitments.
It includes concrete actions such as accelerating the use of renewable energy in health facilities.
I am pleased that as part of its Presidency, the United Arab Emirates will continue to elevate health, with the first dedicated health day at COP28.
I would particularly like to thank Germany for your initiative in leading the finance work stream of the ATACH, and for placing the issue prominently on the agenda of the World Health Summit in Berlin.
WHO is committed to strengthening our work to support Member States, particularly through ATACH.
We are also working with our partners here in Geneva to have a common and powerful voice on health and climate, including GAVI, the Global Fund, UNITAID, and the World Economic Forum.
And I am pleased to inform you that we have made climate change and health the topic of one of the high-level strategic dialogues at the World Health Assembly in May.
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I thank Germany and the Group of Friends of Global Health for your leadership in this area. I have three requests for you today.
First, to our Member States - we seek your support to make health a leading argument for climate action in bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including at this year's G20 and G7 meetings.
Second, to our fellow health agencies, here in Geneva and elsewhere - we seek your support to speak with one voice on the climate crisis across the global health architecture.
And third, to everyone - we seek your commitment to walk the talk, by accelerating progress towards climate resilient, low-carbon health systems.
Thank you all once again. I look forward to working with you all, and to the rest of the discussion.
I thank you, merci, vielen dank.
