Health impacts of climate change moving ‘front and center’
December 15, 2023 – More than a dozen Harvard University faculty, researchers, and students participated in COP28, the two-week international climate summit held this year in Dubai. The summit wrapped up on December 13. In its aftermath, some of the Harvard participants—including several experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—reflected on their experiences and how they think actions and agreements made at the summit might mitigate climate-related health harms.
Three Harvard Chan School experts were quoted in a December 13 article from Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. Here’s what they said:
Gaurab Basu, Director of Education and Policy at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE).
What, for you, is the most important outcome of COP28?
The first-ever “Health Day” was inaugurated at COP28. This was a day dedicated to highlighting the harms of climate change, ecological degradation, and air pollution on global health equity. Health professionals from across the world spoke powerfully of the harmful health impacts of a warming planet on their communities, and offered climate solutions that will protect health and save lives. Over 120 countries signed the COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health. Important commitments were made to curb greenhouse gas emissions and triple renewable energy by 2030.
What do you wish had been different?
The planet has already warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius, and we are at a moment where pledges are no longer enough. The global community must come together and provide in great detail a binding roadmap to fully phase out fossil fuels in an ambitious and coordinated way by 2050. There remains significant pushback on providing such a roadmap, and the influences of the fossil fuel industry loomed over the proceedings. Not only do we need to ramp up clean energy capacity, but we must also aggressively ramp down the use of fossil fuels to protect health.
What are some takeaways that will influence your work going forward?
As a doctor, I know the outcomes of climate policy have powerful impacts on my patients’ health. Climate solutions protect food security, water supply, prevent heat related illness and the spread of infectious diseases. They mitigate the impacts of the extreme weather that causes migration and social instability. It’s critical for the voice of health professionals to be present and impactful in decision-making spaces. I am motivated to work hard to support the capacity building of health professionals advocating for climate solutions and to translate the health benefits of climate solutions to the public.
Francesca Dominici is Professor of Biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative.
What, for you, is the most important outcome of COP28?
My team published a study in Science a week before COP opened that showed, for the first time, that fine particulate matter from coal-fired power plants is twice more dangerous than PM2.5 from other sources. At the Health Day Opening Session on December 3, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry mentioned our study and made a strong argument that the climate crisis is a health crisis. We must stop measuring progress in the climate crisis in terms of degrees averted, he said, and instead by lives saved. This was one of the most satisfying moments of my research career.
What do you wish had been different?
I tend to be impatient, and I wish progress were faster. People are dying now.
What are some takeaways that will influence your work going forward?
I am so pleased to finally see that the health impacts of climate change are becoming front and center in negotiations. I am also energized by the fact that technology and data science play an essential role in combating the climate crisis. We now have data and data science tools, such as machine learning and AI, that can allow us to address questions regarding health impacts, mitigation, adaptation, measuring the carbon footprint of different sectors, and climate financing. However, there is still so much work to do, and I am energized to lead these new areas of research.
Elizabeth Willetts, the Planetary Health Policy Director at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, led Harvard’s health delegation to COP28.
What, for you, is the most important outcome of COP28?
In the health community this was a movement-building COP. We can feel pessimistic about limited progress on meaningful agreement to strengthen mitigation, but it is worth being optimistic that COP28 was a watershed moment for engaging the health sector as a stakeholder group in climate negotiations. After several years of organic organizing, hundreds of health professionals from around the world joined together in Dubai to track and advocate within the negotiation process.
What do you wish had been different?
Food systems are essential to public health and are critical tools to addressing mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage. While a significant element of the health conversation on climate change relates to food systems, advancements on food policy under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are woefully inadequate and at COP28 reached a standstill. We need more investment, and more attention from the health community, on food policy under the UNFCCC. One way we can start is to converge conversations on “health” and those on “food” and “water” – currently distinct siloes.
What are some takeaways that will influence your work going forward?
Having participated in UNFCCC and other UN environment negotiations since 2007, I see a clear shift in how the health narrative of climate change is underscored by a palpable urgency for real progress in global collective action. This makes sense because health professionals have responsibilities to mind the health of our populations – and this is increasingly out of our grasp, with environmental determinants playing a large role. Going forward, the network of climate-environment-health professionals will continue to grow, which is motivating because it means we can keep expanding the scope of research, dialogue, funding, and education.
Read the Salata Institute article: Harvard delegates reflect on COP28
Learn more
Shining a light on the human toll of climate change (Harvard Chan School news)
