About 200 health organizations and more than 1,400 medical experts on Wednesday called on the government to establish a binding international treaty on phasing out fossil fuels. They said fossil fuels pose a “serious and serious threat to human health.”

A letter proposing a “fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty” said it could work similarly to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but this time the harmful controlled substances would be coal, oil and gas. except.

WHO was one of the health organizations around the world that signed the letter.

“Modern fossil fuel addiction is not just an act of environmental destruction.

The letter called on governments to develop and implement legally-binding mechanisms to halt all future fossil fuel expansion and phase out existing production.

The transition should be carried out in a “fair and equitable manner”, with high-income countries supporting low-income countries to ensure that the transition “reduces rather than exacerbates poverty”. emphasized that

Seven million people die each year due to air pollution, mostly from burning fossil fuels.

Climate change is also spurring more frequent and severe extreme weather events, with lasting health consequences beyond those initially affected by disasters, such as smoke from wildfires and the spread of disease after floods. It may affect

The letter also points to the increasing health risks faced by workers involved in the extraction, refining, transportation and distribution of fossil fuels and related products.

The letter said phasing out fossil fuels could prevent 3.6 million deaths a year from air pollution alone, adding: cannot say the same,” he added.

fossil fuels or health

Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, director of the WHO’s Climate Change Division, said, “From a health standpoint, we cannot cure a disease without finding the cause.”

He told AFP that the treaty’s call was important because he did not “try to use false statements or fictitious solutions to continue to fuel the burning of fossil fuels.”

“We can have fossil fuels or we can have health. We can’t have both.”

Courtney Howard, a Canadian subarctic emergency physician who signed the letter, said the air quality in the city of Yellowknife was the worst in the world when wildfires erupted in 2014.

“The number of emergency room visits for asthma has doubled, pneumonia has increased by 50% and one pharmacy is out of respirators,” Howard told AFP.

She said phasing out fossil fuels “is something we have to do for everyone — for all our children.”

Jenni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, who helped coordinate the letter, called for international dialogue and negotiations to bring the treaty to life.

“The price of inaction is increasing,” she said.

© 2022 AFP