Overview

The burden of disease attributable to the environment is high and persistent, and amounts to 13 million deaths each year (one quarter of all deaths), and further health concerns are posed by global challenges such as climate change and rapid urbanization. To respond to that situation, a new global strategy on health, environment and climate change has been developed and broadly supported by countries during the Seventy-second World Health Assembly in May 2019. It aims at transforming the way we tackle environmental risks to health by accounting for health in all policies and scaling up disease prevention and health promotion.

It needs to be supported by a strengthened health sector, adequate governance mechanisms, and enhanced communication creating a demand for healthy environments. The new strategy is timely – it responds to and is in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the GPW13.