Paris, Day 1: How Mayors Should Think About Health and Climate Change

At the last COP meeting, in Copenhagen in 2009, there was only one side event focused on health and climate—two areas that are particularly important to cities and communities. This year at COP21 in Paris there have been several every day, with hundreds of thousands of people attending. More than 15 country delegations that include high-level health officials, including health ministers, are here. Their words are particularly important to mayors and local leaders concerned about the health of their communities.

The new focus on health has not gone unnoticed by one ecoAmerican in Paris: John M. Balbus, a medical doctor with an Master’s in Public Health who serves as senior advisor to the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Services, within the National Institutes of Health. He is attending and presenting at health seminars on the sidelines of COP21 that point out the critical links between health and climate, and the important role medical and health professionals can play in helping the public, community leaders, and mayors understand this link.

“I think that the health community has very important voices within the United States. The more we can get rank-and-file members of the health community talking about these issues repeatedly and in a normal manner…I think that’s one of the best things we can do to overcome divisions about climate change.”

The effects of climate change on people’s health are evident in the U.S. and abroad. Warmer temperatures at higher altitudes are facilitating the spread of diseases like dengue and chikungunya. Heat stress is also a problem, both in countries whose delegates Balbus is meeting here in Paris, but also in the United States. “Especially in developing countries there are huge issues about health stresses and economic stresses,” Balbus says, “ because people are just not able to work outdoors under extreme heat.”

But Balbus is optimistic that the momentum he is experiencing at COP21 bodes well for climate solutions in the near future. “There are all kinds of signs of hope here. I think that a number of countries have come to Paris absolutely committed to making reductions in their greenhouse gases, even in the absence of a binding agreement yet. The mood that the countries came here with and the determination that they have…hopefully we’ll see that turn into a good resolution at the end of next week.”

Balbus says that seeing Bill Gates and other donors who are in Paris this week starting to put large amounts of money to the climate solutions side is very encouraging. He can cite a number of ways the United States can lead on this issue in the health sphere.

“A person like Jeff Thompson, whom I interviewed at a COP side event on Wednesday, former CEO of Gundersen Health Systems in the United States, has taken a medium-sized health system and made it a net energy producer with 100% renewable energy. He decreased his carbon footprint by 70-80%. I think when it comes to the technological innovation in the health care sector and to delivering quality health care without a large carbon footprint, the U.S. has the technical know how to really be leaders in this space.”

The most important thing he and other health leaders can do now, says Balbus, is get the message out that climate and health are intertwined, but that there are things we can do both to adapt and to mitigate climate change.  

“We have to have this conversation about climate and health frequently,” he says, “and it has to be a positive conversation. There are enormous amounts of benefits to our economy and to our health from taking really strong action on climate change. Not just incremental marginal action, but the kind of action we need to avert the most serious manifestations of climate change. And if we can get that message out, repeatedly, like ecoAmerica’s Climate for Health program and others are doing, so that it becomes a normal, socialized part of our discourse, that’s the best thing that we can do.”

Climate, health and communities can no longer be separated. By pursuing climate solutions, leaders will enrich their communities, families, and the health of residents. Find out more about leading in your community by joining Path to Positive Communities.