A WHO-led global strategy to control greenhouse gas emissions: a call for action

Our plain-English summary of A WHO-led global strategy to control greenhouse gas emissions: a call for action, by M.F. Chersich, N. Brink, M.H. Craig, et al (Globalization and Health, 2024).

The study

• Authors: M.F. Chersich, N. Brink, M.H. Craig, G. Maimela, F. Scorgie, S. Luchters
• Journal: Globalization and Health
• Published: 2024;20(1):4
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Background: Climate change, driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, is among the greatest threats to human health. The World Health Organisation (WHO), has led global efforts to respond to emerging public health threats including the control of hazardous substances such as tobacco, alcohol, lead and asbestos, with remarkable health gains. BODY: Despite WHO's clear messaging on the enormous and growing health risks of climate change, greenhouse gases are not yet classified as hazardous substances, requiring control through a global strategy or framework. Additionally, WHO has not classified disease attributable to climate change as a result of the promulgation of these hazards as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), despite the serious and preventable health risks it poses globally. Several historical precedents set the stage for WHO to declare excess greenhouse gases as health hazards, including the control of ozone-depleting substances and breast-milk substitutes where the public benefit of control exceeded the potential benefit of their promulgation. In addition, WHO's undertaking within the International Health Regulations to protect global health, providing imperative to declare climate change a PHEIC, with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, declaring: "The climate crisis is a health crisis, fuelling outbreaks, contributing to higher rates of noncommunicable diseases, and threatening to overwhelm our health workforce and health infrastructure". Importantly, the health sector, perhaps more than other sectors, has successfully overcome formidable, vested interests in combatting these threats to health.

Conclusion: It is thus imperative that WHO make full use of their credibility and influence to establish a global framework for the control of greenhouse gases through the declaration of excess greenhouse gas emissions as a hazardous substance, and declaring climate change a PHEIC. Who else is better placed to drive the considerable societal transformation needed to secure a liveable future?

© 2023. The Author(s).

In plain English

This article was a commentary, not a research study. It reported no new data and did not study asbestos. The authors argued that the World Health Organisation (WHO) should treat excess greenhouse gas emissions, principally carbon dioxide and methane, as health hazards. Asbestos was mentioned only in passing. It appeared in a list of hazardous substances (along with tobacco, alcohol and lead) whose control the authors said WHO had been instrumental in; the list appeared in both the abstract and the background section. It also appeared in the title of one cited WHO report. The authors pointed to precedents they saw as relevant: the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances, restrictions on breast-milk substitutes, and WHO's declaration of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). They called on national International Health Regulations focal points to consider notifying WHO of a potential PHEIC. They also raised ideas such as health warning labels on high-emission products and taxing those products. The authors concluded that WHO should use its credibility and influence to set up a global framework for controlling greenhouse gases and should declare climate change a PHEIC.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: commentary (opinion piece; no original data)
• Exposure: Excess greenhouse gas emissions, principally carbon dioxide and methane. Asbestos is not studied. It is mentioned only as an example of a hazardous substance WHO helped control.
• Main results:
  • Asbestos was mentioned only in passing. It appeared in a list of hazardous substances (with tobacco, alcohol and lead) whose control the authors said WHO had been instrumental in. The list appeared in the abstract and again in the background section. Asbestos also appeared in the title of one cited WHO reference.
  • The authors cited as precedents the control of ozone-depleting substances and breast-milk substitutes.
  • The authors cited WHO's declaration of COVID-19 as a PHEIC as a further precedent.
  • The authors called on national International Health Regulations focal points to consider notifying WHO of a potential PHEIC.
  • The authors raised the idea of health warning labels on high-emission products.
  • The authors raised the idea of taxing high-emission products.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that WHO should use its credibility and influence to establish a global framework for controlling greenhouse gases, by declaring excess emissions a hazardous substance and declaring climate change a PHEIC.

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