Inside Geneva: COP27, climate change, and health

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) is due to start this Sunday in Egypt. Evidence shows too little is done against climate change. What does this mean for our health?

In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes is joined by health and climate experts.

“A 1 degree or 0.5 degree [Celsius] increase has an exponential direct impact on the number of cases of cholera or the number of people dying from heatwaves,” says Ninni Ikkala Nyman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

“Climate change is bad for our health. This is not some distant future threat that’s going to happen to poor people, or farmers, or only in developing countries, or that’s only an economic issue,” says Lachlan McIver of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

How committed are we to net-zero climate objectives?

“I was looking at the immediate energy crisis, and some of the countries are solving the problem of having less oil and gas from Russia, by starting using coal again,” says analyst Daniel Warner.

The COP27 climate conference is taking place in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6-18.

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