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Archive for low carbon

Forum on Climate and Health: the Research, Policy and Advocacy Agenda

by CAHA
November 23rd, 2013

Forum on Climate and Health: the Research, Policy and Advocacy Agenda 

November 2013

This forum brought together health and medical researchers, health and medical professionals, students, environmental educators and community members to discuss the research, policy and advocacy agenda needed in Australia on climate and health.

Participants  issued a Joint Statement following the forum expressing their collective concern at the current lack of recognition of the health effects of climate change by governments, businesses and the broader community.

Click on this link to read the Joint Statement from Participants. The accompanying media release is here.

You can read a ‘storified’ report of the  Twitter stream from the event here.

Listen to this podcast from the forum prepared by Beyond Zero Radio presenter Vivien Langford.

Categories Advocacy, Allied health, Behaviour change, Climate, Emissions, Energy, Energy policy, Environment, Ethics, Extreme weather, Health, Health policy, Health professionals, health promotion, healthcare, Heat, Heatwaves, Medical, Nursing, Psychology, Public health, Public policy, Research, Social policy, Sustainability, Sustainable, Transformation
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Greening the healthcare sector: Policy Think Tank

by CAHA
September 12th, 2013

The second annual CAHA – AHHA think tank on sustainability on the health care sector was held in Melbourne on 30th August 2013.

We heard from international speaker Dr Blair Sadler from the University of California and the successful Healthier Hospitals Initiative as well as local and interstate sustainable healthcare professionals sharing their experiences. Josh Karliner from Health Care Without Harm shared a innovative new communications platform that’s connecting people working on greening the health sector initiatives worldwide!

Check out this report via Croakey for a Twitter report of the day’s events.

Click here for Program details.

Full report coming soon!

Categories Climate, Emissions, Energy, Energy policy, Health, healthcare, Sustainability
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Book your tickets to Melbourne!

by CAHA
February 4th, 2013

The Climate and Health Alliance is involved in THREE events at the 2013 Melbourne Sustainable Living Festival:


Climate and Health Clinic – all weekend Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th February

Roving ‘health promoters’ will help people develop their own individualised ‘prescriptions for a healthy life and a health planet’.

The clinic and ‘prescriptions’ provide opportunities for people to learn about sustainable lifestyles are healthy lifestyles and how cutting emissions can improve health. Some strategies people can choose for their own prescription include: walking, cycling or using public transport; switching to clean renewable energy e.g. installing solar panels; adopting a plant based diet; or spending time with nature e.g. bushwalking, or getting involved in community gardening or tree planting projects.

To volunteer, contact Volunteer Coordinator Bronwyn Wauchope [email protected] or Fiona Armstrong [email protected].

 

The Heat is On – Climate change, extreme heat and human health – a panel discussion: 3PM-4PM Sat 16th Feb in The Greenhouse @ Birrarung Marr

Featuring CAHA President Dr Liz Hanna; CAHA scientific advisor Professor David Karoly; and Victorian AMA Vice President Dr Tony Bartone on the impact of climate change on extreme weather including heatwaves; how heatwaves affect people’s health; and what we can do about it.

 

Our Uncashed Dividend – 11am-12pm Sunday 17th Feb in Under the Gum talk tent

Come and hear the good news about climate action – how strategies to reduce emissions can improve your own and the community’s health, not to mention save money.

Our transition to low-carbon living provides the opportunity to create healthier, happier communities and could save billions of dollars for health budgets by avoiding much ill health and lost productivity.

The report Our Uncashed Dividend: The Health Benefits of Climate Action, produced by the Climate and Health Alliance and The Climate Institute, spells out the evidence.

Come and hear from report author Fiona Armstrong and contributor Corey Watts about our nation’s ‘Uncashed Dividend’.

 

 

Categories Advocacy, Climate, Emissions, Extreme weather, Health, Heat, Heatwaves, Sustainability, Transformation, Uncategorized, Well-being
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DOHA Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing

by CAHA
December 3rd, 2012

The international health and medical community have developed a joint statement on climate health and wellbeing calling for health to be central to climate action during the COP18 international climate change negotiations in Doha, Qatar.

Signatories to the Doha Declaration for Climate, Health and Wellbeing include the World Medical Association, the International Council of Nurses, International Federation of Medical Students, Health Care Without Harm, European Public Health Association, Royal College of General Practitioners (UK), Climate and Health Council, OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate & Health Council, NHS Sustainable Development Unit, Umeå Center for Global Health Research, Climate and Health Alliance, Public Health Association of Australia, the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, Doctors Reform Society, Australian Association of Social Workers, and the Australian Medical Students Association and many others.

The Doha Declaration calls for health to be central to climate action, and highlights the opportunities to improve health through emissions reductions – pointing out that reducing fossil fuel consumption and moving to low carbon energy systems can deliver many benefits to health worldwide.

“The impact of climate change on health is one of the most significant measures of harm associated with our warming planet,” the Declaration says. “Protecting health is therefore one of the most important motivations for climate action.”

This effort builds on the collaboration at the 2011 global climate and health summit among the health and medical community in advocate for climate action.

The Doha Declaration outlines why health experts are extremely worried about the slow progress at the international climate negotiations, and highlights how the health co-benefits of emissions can build support for ambitious climate action.

This joint statement from the global health community reiterates policy demands from the 2011 Durban Declaration and Global Call to Action urging countries to consider the health implications of climate change as well as the health benefits of climate action – which can provide savings that either largely or completely offset the costs of mitigation and adaptation.

This statement will be used in discussion with policy makers in Doha, but also serves as roadmap of future action.

See the CAHA media release here.

If you want to support this statement, sign up here: www.dohadeclaration.weebly.com

Categories Advocacy, Allied health, Children, Climate, Emissions, Health, Health professionals, Medical, survival, Sustainability, Transformation
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Greening the health sector: think tank report

by CAHA
October 5th, 2012

The Climate and Health Alliance and Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Assocations co-hosted a “Greening the Health Sector Policy Think Tank” in Sydney in August 2012.

This event was attended by 52 enthusiastic participants from a range of health facilities, state departments and universities. We certainly achieved our aim of starting an important conversation about how hospitals and healthcare providers can reduce their own carbon footprints (mitigation), and in doing so how the Australian health system can be strengthened through the promotion of greater sustainability and environmental health. While hospitals have a big ”environmental footprint”, many are finding that sustainability measures benefit patients and the environment and offer financial savings. We also discussed the role of the health sector in building capacity to deal with the impact of climate change on health services (adaptation). A Policy Issues Brief on this topic was drafted for the AHHA’s Institute, and circulated to registrants ahead of the PTT.

Download the report from the Think Tank here.

The keynote speaker was Professor Peter Orris from the USA, Senior Advisor from CAHA’s international partner organisation, Health Care Without Harm.

Professor Orris is the Director of the Occupational Health Service Institute and Global Chemicals Policy Program at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, a component of a WHO Collaborating Center. Dr Orris has served as advisor to WHO, PAHO, Federal, State and Local Governments, environmental organizations, labor unions and corporations.

A series of Canberra-based meetings were organized with Peter in the two-days ahead of the PTT including with the Minister for Health and Ageing (Tanya Plibersek), the Minister for Climate Change’s Chief of Staff (Allan Behm), Senators Richard Di Natale and Nick Xenophon and officers from the Departments of Health and Ageing and Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Professor Orris also presented a seminar for the staff at the Department of Climate Change with about 50 attendees.

Other speakers included:

  • Dr Kate Charlesworth, Public Health Registrar previously from the NHS Sustainable Development Unit
  • Mr Glen Hadfield, Manager, Asset Systems & Sustainability, Western Sydney Local Health District
  • Dr Forbes McGain, Anaesthetist and Intensive Care Physician, Western Health Footscray, Vic
  • Professor Tony Capon, Head of the Discipline of Public Health Faculty of Health University of Canberra

The presentations from the Greening the Healthcare Sector Policy Think Tank are available here.

Categories Advocacy, Climate, Energy, Health policy, healthcare, Sustainability, Uncategorized
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Crowdsourcing a new e-publication on climate and health

by CAHA
September 3rd, 2012

CAHA’s suggestion for a publication focused on the ‘health implications of climate change’ was chosen from a pool of ideas for a workshop at the Melbourne Writers Festical last month.

The idea was conceived by Melissa Sweet from the health blog Croakey who invited readers to submit ideas for new, health related online publications so that one could be selected for development at the New News Conference as part of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

Around thirty eager participants showed up for a high speed product development workshop dubbed “crowdsourcing a new publication”.

Workshop participants were asked to come up with strategies for community building, editorial, digital news and business development as well as next steps.

After just one hour, we had a core idea: a publication/website that would to showcase the benefits of healthy sustainable societies through user generated content which was underpinned by scientific research and literature.

A key message was that it should be about ‘showing’ not ‘telling’, and the content ‘brains trust’ advocated the creation of an appealing visual narrative – to help show what low carbon living IS, feels like, looks like, and in doing so, illustrate what the benefits are – creating a pull rather than push factor.

Read about some of the ideas generated and observer’s thoughts on this fast moving workshop on Croakey and in a Melbourne Press Club report.

CAHA’s take on the outcome appears below in a brief overview of what a proposal for publication might look like:

******

Purpose/Aim of the publication

To communicate climate change and global environmental issues in a public health frame that leads to changes in policy/influences policy

Strategy

To aggregate and connect community efforts to respond to climate change in a visible way through social media and digital platforms using stories, pictures, personal narratives and profiles

Audience

Various groups – community, policymakers, media

Groups with various levels of engagement with the issue – the unsure, the confused, the early adopters

Partners/Collaborators

Others who are driving changes in community whether it is local initiatives such as a suburban food forest or transformation change through to national initiatives such as thought leadership and research on low carbon pathways

Methods of Engagement

Launch through social media and social networks

Link to environmental and health groups

Use various mediums to connect with various groups ie include blogs, research papers

Need to approach from the point of view of “showing” not “telling”

Opportunities and challenges  

The Big One: Capturing, modelling and communicating what healthy sustainable societies look like, feel like, are like!

While there may be a range of different audiences requiring different strategies of engagement and messages/stories it may be possible to influence other groups ( ie policymakers through demonstration of community engagement)

Building a community of interest around a personal connection to environmental change using a public health frame

Provides an ability to interweave the evidence with community experience

Using data journalism to demonstrate the cumulative impacts of individual action and sectoral change ie demonstrate the real life implications of policy ie Bill’s compost achieves the following results for him, but what the implications of rolling out his approach to every household?

Ie what are the economics involved in scaling up? What might the savings be – in emissions, and in financial terms?

Challenges – How to connect with different audiences eg experts, policymakers, community, media?

*********

Do you think you’d like to see this idea developed further?

If you would like to be involved in taking this project forward, contact [email protected]

Categories Advocacy, Health, Health policy, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Wellness
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