WHO joins over 200 health organisations calling for fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty

More than 1,000 health workers and 200 organisations, along with the World Health Organisation (WHO), have given a clarion call to address the climate change issue seriously by enacting and legally enforcing non-proliferation treaty to cut global dependence on fossil fuels.

In a public letter released on Wednesday, they have urged the world governments to urgently come out with a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuel exploration and production, similar to the framework convention on tobacco, which was negotiated under the WHO’s auspices in 2003.

They want the existing production to be phased out in a "fair and equitable manner" to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) climate goal that was set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

They have also demanded "financial, technological and other support" for low- and middle-income countries to ensure a "just transition" to a sustainable future.

Theinitiative drew wide support from the Dalai Lama and 100 other Nobel laureates, the Vatican, several cities and island states, more than 1,000 health professionals and almost 3,000 scientists and academics, reports the Guardian.

“The modern addiction to fossil fuels is not just an act of environmental vandalism. From the health perspective, it is an act of self-sabotage,” said the WHO president, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Calling the letter a watershed moment, the head of the WHO’s climate change department, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, told Guardian, “This is the first time the health sector has come together to issue such a statement explicitly about fossil fuels.”

“The current burden of death and disease from air pollution is comparable to that of tobacco use, while the long-term effects of fossil fuels on the Earth’s climate present an existential threat to humanity – as do nuclear weapons,” the WHO official added.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE