Again in December, the twenty eighth Convention of the Events to the United Nations Framework on Local weather Change (UNFCCC), higher often called COP28, hosted an unprecedented meeting of well being delegates – setting a historic benchmark. I attended the convention as a part of a delegation from Worldwide Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Battle (IPPNW), of which Medact is the UK affiliate. Over 1900 well being professionals noticed a landmark inaugural ‘Well being Day’ on the convention. With the aim of Disarmament for Local weather Justice and Well being, IPPNW and Medact participated at COP28 to make sure human and environmental well being was on the middle of resolution making. Listed below are some key highlights from the convention, and issues of the trail in the direction of disarmament for well being and local weather justice.
COP28’s new themes: ‘Well being’ & ‘Aid, Restoration and Peace’
These two new themes had been milestones for the local weather convention. It has taken 27 years to see a devoted Well being Day, which noticed 141 events resolve precedence actions for well being methods responses to local weather change, financing commitments for implementation, and endorse the ‘Health–Climate declaration’. Different key occasions from the convention had been the institution of Loss and Damage funds for international locations susceptible to the hostile results of local weather change. Moreover, the UAE consensus signified an settlement from all events to transition away from fossil fuels. Nevertheless, the consensus lacked concrete actions to part out fossil fuels, or recognition of the carbon footprint of militarisation and the continued international proliferation of arms – together with large investments in nuclear weapons.
Actually, the crises we face are pressing and require such motion. Nevertheless, commitments of the convention centered on response to catastrophes. For instance, COP28’s Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace included a “bundle of options”, in search of to mobilise local weather motion in international locations affected by battle & strengthen partnerships to enhance catastrophe preparedness, early warning methods, and local weather resilience. These commitments sadly got here with out settlement on actions to scale back carbon emissions – one essential contributor being international army emissions.
Disarmament for Local weather Justice
The Ladies’s Worldwide League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and IPPNW organised a vital motion to deal with the elephant within the room – the military-industrial complicated. For the reason that 1997 Kyoto protocol, there was no obligatory recording of any army emissions, from flying jets, to crusing ships, to endeavor gasoline intensive coaching workouts. From organisations like IPPNW, there was a robust name for demilitarization, decolonisation, an finish to occupations, and peace for social, well being and local weather justice.
What are the info? And what are our calls for?
- Navy greenhouse gasoline emissions speed up local weather breakdown, posing a extreme menace to well being and the local weather. Navy exercise is estimated to contribute 5.5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. Research in 2017 discovered that US protection operations produced extra carbon emissions than your entire states of Sweden or Portugal in the identical 12 months. Militaries should be included in future negotiations and beneath the binding reporting of the UNFCCC to fulfill the 1.5°C threshold.
- The worldwide arms race threatens well being and the local weather. In 2022, world army expenditure rose to $2240 billion, with $82.9 billion spent on nuclear weapons alone. Disarmament and demilitarisation are very important areas for international divestment in service of financing local weather mitigation and guaranteeing human safety. A recent report discovered that the $1.26 trillion of NATO’s army spending in 2023 would cowl probably the most polluting nations’ unfulfilled promise of local weather financing of $100 billion a 12 months for 12 years, or African international locations’ local weather adaptation and mitigation for 4 years. We’d like international, multilateral divestment from arms manufacturing and militarisation, and the financial prioritisation of local weather responses.
- Nuclear energy is a useless finish within the seek for clear vitality. Within the face of the local weather disaster, some are propagating a supposedly easy carbon-free means out: nuclear vitality. However in truth, nuclear energy is pricey and unreliable, it lags behind renewables when it comes to cost-effectiveness and output, and stays harmful. There are radiotoxic penalties and well being dangers alongside your entire gasoline chain, from the uranium pit to remaining storage. We’d like a direct cessation of new-build, and decommissioning of current nuclear energy stations, and centered funding in renewable vitality as a part of a simply transition away from fossil fuels.
- Nuclear weapons pose an acute well being menace to the planet and all its life varieties. Nuclear weapons pose an acute existential menace to human and environmental well being. A so-called “restricted” nuclear conflict would have international catastrophic local weather penalties. A brand new study by IPPNW exhibits that within the case of nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, utilizing lower than 3% of the world’s nuclear arsenals might kill as much as each third individual on earth. Local weather agreements ought to urge all governments to hitch the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on the earliest attainable date.
In conclusion, although the Well being & Aid, Restoration and Peace days opened an amazing platform to the well being group for a robust medical voice on the local weather disaster, we should take collaborative motion, partaking in intergenerational work to boost consciousness of the necessity for nuclear disarmament, demilitarisation and peace for local weather and well being justice.
Be a part of Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group, sign up to the mailing list, or attend our next meeting, to help our work in the direction of nuclear disarmament by means of evidence-based campaigning.
This accompanies an opinion piece in BMJ, “Disarmament is vital for climate justice and health”, which was revealed on nineteenth January 2024.