What lessons can be drawn from the response to the COVID-19 crisis for the climate crisis? Both are global health emergencies and health professionals have an essential role in both.
Christiana Figueres, the previous executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, identified five major lessons to be learned from COVID-19: global threats do not recognise national borders; we are only as safe as our most vulnerable; global challenges require systemic change; prevention is better than cure; and we need to listen to the scientific experts.
Health and social inequalities became startlingly clear in the pandemic, and radical measures to address these were called for by many progressive public health organisations, among them Medact. The poor, with cramped or no housing and no financial buffers, suffered, and are suffering, most from the effects of COVID-19 and climate change, …
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