Leading international experts have urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the climate crisis a global public health emergency, warning that failure to act could lead to 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 the highest level of health alert: a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (Pheic).
Why a Pheic Is Necessary
The commission's report, set to be presented to European ministers before the WHO's world health assembly, highlights the international spread of vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, along with health impacts from extreme weather, global heating, food insecurity, and air pollution. Pheics are the highest level of health alert, previously declared for infectious diseases like Covid and Mpox. While a declaration alone will not reverse climate change, it would trigger the kind of coordinated international response that the scale of the health crisis demands but has not yet materialised.
Immediate and Long-Term Threats
The 11-member independent commission, which includes 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, a former prime minister of Iceland who chaired the commission, told the Guardian: “The climate crisis may not be a pandemic, but it's still a public health emergency that threatens humanity's very health and survival. And if we don't act more quickly and comprehensively, many millions more people could die or face life-changing illness.”
Call to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
The commission urged governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels, which are directly responsible for 600,000 premature deaths annually in Europe alone. The region spends about €444bn (£387bn) a 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 exceeded the entire health budget. “This is not a sustainable energy policy. It's really more of a public health failure,” Jakobsdóttir said. “New subsidies for fossil fuels as well as countries considering redrilling in the wake of the Iran crisis would be catastrophic for health.”
Health Systems Under Threat
The report also called for measures to tackle disinformation, greater use of national climate health impact assessments, and recognition that climate change is a mental health crisis. Jakobsdóttir emphasised: “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.” The report recommended that healthcare systems become more resilient to the rapidly changing environment. Sir Andrew Haines, the commission's chief scientific adviser, noted that hospitals are often built on floodplains and are not energy efficient, struggling during extreme heatwaves. The healthcare sector accounts for 5% of global emissions, so adaptation is crucial.
Response from WHO and Experts
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO's regional director for Europe, said: “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 that breaching multiple planetary boundaries provides ample scientific evidence for declaring climate change a public health emergency of international concern.
