Climate change

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• How flooding affects health
  20-05-2013
  Floods are the most common natural disaster in the WHO European Region, with effects on health ranging from drowning and injuries to infectious diseases and mental health problems.
• WHO evidence underpins new EU strategy on adapting to climate change
  29-04-2013
  The main findings of the WHO/Europe project on climate, environment and health action plan and information system (CEHAPIS) underpin the health component of the new European Union (EU) policy on climate change, launched today.
• Applications welcome for observership at WHO/Europe
  18-04-2013
  The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) is sponsoring a three-day observership for five people in WHO/Europe’s Division of Communicable Diseases, Health Security and Environment.
• Early warning system for cold-waves established in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  08-04-2013
  Cold weather, especially extreme temperatures, can threaten health. Recognizing that the health sector must prepare for and help mitigate the adverse health effects of cold-waves, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with WHO support, developed an action plan for prevention of the harmful effects of cold weather.
• WHO/Europe in Copenhagen moving to new premises
  13-03-2013
  WHO/Europe’s head office, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, is moving to new premises during 22 March to 1 April 2013. All United Nations organizations in the Danish capital will come together in new premises known as UN City.
• How cold weather affects health
  15-02-2013
  Severe cold weather spells are common across the WHO European Region. They increase mortality and pose a high health risk to many, particularly vulnerable groups. Knowing the risks and the measures needed to prepare for and respond to cold weather can help prevent its health effects.
• Climate change already affecting health in Tajikistan
  07-02-2013
  This is the conclusion drawn from the latest findings of a four-year project. It included assessments of vulnerability to and the impact of climate change, and of food security and nutrition in Tajikistan, as well as the implementation of several water safety plans.
• Urgent need for adaption: climate change affects health
  21-11-2012
  Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, causing a wide range of impacts on society and the environment. Further impacts are expected in the future, potentially causing high damage costs, according to the latest assessment published by the European Environment Agency today. WHO Regional Office for Europe contributed to assessment of the health effects.
• Regional Director attends Environment and Health Ministerial Board (EHMB) meeting in Azerbaijan
  21-11-2012
  At its third meeting, EHMB agreed that an environment and health gateway, an on-line knowledge repository and information portal, will be developed. The meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Azerbaijan, concluded on 16 November 2012.
• Atlas of health and climate launches new collaboration between public health and meteorological communities
  29-10-2012
  As the world’s climate continues to change, hazards to human health are increasing. The Atlas of Health and Climate, published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), illustrates some of the most pressing current and emerging challenges
• Extreme weather affects health in Kazakhstan: final results of WHO pilot project
  18-10-2012
  A four-year pilot project, conducted by WHO/Europe and funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), found that climate change is already a reality in Kazakhstan, as more frequent and intense extreme weather events affect people’s health and the economy.
• Health in an age of austerity: WHO at European Health Forum Gastein
  10-10-2012
  Speaking during the opening session of the European Health Forum Gastein in Bad Hofgastein, Austria last week, Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, underlined the health sector’s vital contribution to the general economy, and the importance of investing in public health, health promotion and disease prevention in times of austerity. As more and varied groups now have an interest in health, Ms Jakab also spoke of the continuing relevance and even greater importance of WHO, and how Health 2020, the new European policy framework, supports action across government and society to promote health and well-being.
• WHO provides assistance for reconstruction of water supply system to district hospital in Tajikistan
  17-07-2012
  As part of a wider project to protect health from climate change, the WHO Country Office in Tajikistan is supporting efforts to ensure safe water supplies to hospitals.  Among the WHO-supported activities is reconstruction of the water supply system at Rudaki Central District Hospital.
• Severe heat-wave in Europe: advice on health effects and ultraviolet exposure
  28-06-2012
  Parts of the European Region are experiencing extreme heat-waves. Every year, heat threatens the health of many people, particularly the elderly. Heat can trigger exhaustion, heart attacks or confusion, and worsen existing conditions, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Nevertheless, the harmful effects of hot weather are largely preventable.
• Rio+20 puts health at the heart of development goals
  22-06-2012
  The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, recognizes in its final document the fundamental need to act on the social and environmental determinants of health to create inclusive, equitable, economically productive and healthy societies.
• Questions answered: health advice for travellers to EURO 2012
  11-06-2012
  WHO/Europe has produced detailed health advice for people attending the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (EURO 2012). It includes information on how to prepare before leaving home, stay safe in crowds, seek emergency health care, and avoid, recognize the symptoms of and treat common travellers’ illnesses.
• Climate change and health: lessons learnt in the WHO European Region
  04-06-2012
  European Member States, UN and EU agencies, as well as researchers will be meeting for the first time after the Ministerial Conference to report on new findings and challenges on climate change and health in line with the Parma declaration. This meeting is also the first meeting of the renewed working group on climate change and health of the European Environment and Health Process. The meeting is expected to set the agenda of work on climate change and health and to define priorities and particular areas which require enforcement.
• New report gives preliminary dose estimation from Fukushima nuclear accident
  23-05-2012
  The report describes a preliminary estimate of radiation doses to the public resulting from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site in Japan in March 2011.
• WHO/Europe contributed to the interagency report “From transition to transformation: sustainable and inclusive development in Europe and Central Asia”
  26-04-2012
  Sustainable  development  calls  for  a  new  health  governance  approach,  introducing  the  health dimension in decision-making processes cutting across all public policy areas. The development of this approach requires political leadership, creation and dissemination of know-how across sectors, provision of incentives that promote cross-sectoral work, allocation of resources and clarification of responsibilities.
• Environment and health training workshop in Latvia
  27-03-2012
  Seventy participants from the health and environment sectors of eight countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) attended a training workshop on environment and health in Riga, Latvia, from 19 to 23 March 2012.
• Significant steps taken in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to mitigate health effects of climate change
  27-03-2012
  Results of a project led by WHO/Europe on protecting health from climate change were presented in Skopje, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on 20 and 21 March 2012.
• Where do natural hazards pose a public health risk?
  20-03-2012
  Earthquakes, floods, landslides, high winds and heat waves put lives in peril, and extreme weather events due to climate change are increasing. WHO/Europe has mapped people’s risk of exposure to these hazards in the 32 most-affected countries in the Region.
• WHO launches expanded European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany: new report on environmental health inequalities published
  14-02-2012
  One citizen out of five dies from environment-associated diseases in the WHO European Region. The environmental burden of ill health varies significantly across the Region, however, ranging from 14% to 54%. Within countries, the poor can be exposed to environmental risks five times more often than their wealthier peers, a new WHO report concludes.
• Health services must prepare for extremely cold weather
  03-02-2012
  Extremely cold weather increases mortality and poses a high health risk to many, particularly children and elderly, homeless or intoxicated people. Health services and hospitals must care for patients suffering from exposure to the cold, hypothermia, frostbite, injuries and accidents, as well as respiratory infections and cardiovascular incidents.
• Tajik journalists’ role feted in climate-change discussions
  06-01-2012
  On 23 December 2011, the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan and WHO recognized the contribution of the mass media and journalists to protecting health from climate change. The awards for their contributions were part of a project financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany.
• WHO Rome office closes at the end of 2011
  20-12-2011
  The Rome office of the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health is due to close at the end of December 2011. WHO’s work on environment and health in Europe remains a priority and is being consolidated in Bonn, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark. This will allow the WHO Regional Office for Europe to maintain and strengthen its technical capacities in this area for the benefit of the 53 Member States of the European Region.
• WHO highlights the co-benefits for health of transport policies that mitigate climate change
  06-12-2011
  A new WHO report, part of the Health in the Green Economy series, considers the evidence regarding health co-benefits, and risks, of climate change mitigation strategies for transport, as reviewed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. In the European Region, WHO is promoting climate change mitigation strategies for transport within the Framework for Action on climate change and the pan-European programme on transport, health and environment (THE PEP).
• Joint action on environmental health threats discussed
  02-11-2011
  Meeting for the first time in Bled, Slovenia, on 26–28 October 2011, the European Environment and Health Task Force discussed proposed areas of joint action to implement the commitments agreed by European countries in the Parma Declaration on Environment and Health.
• Turkey develops response strategy to climate change
  30-09-2011
  Key national and international stakeholders met in Ankara on 28-30 September 2011 to discuss a response strategy to climate change.
• Protecting health from climate change in Kazakhstan
  28-09-2011
  On 20 September 2011, WHO and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan convened a working group meeting for the joint project: Protecting Health from Climate Change in Kazakhstan.
• WHO/Europe highlights the health dimension at the ‘Environment for Europe’ Conference
  21-09-2011
  With side events and exhibitions, WHO will keep the spotlight on health at the forthcoming Seventh "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference, organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 21-23 September 2011. The Conference main themes are sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems, and greening the economy: mainstreaming the environment into economic development. Both themes belong to long-standing areas of collaboration between WHO/Europe and UNECE, as part of the European Environment and Health Process and of the implementation of the Parma Ministerial Declaration on environment and health.
• Training in Tajikistan boosts journalists’ ability to report on climate change
  20-09-2011
  A series of training workshops has helped journalists in Tajikistan to raise awareness about climate change and its effects on health. Three workshops were held in Sogd oblast (Khujand city); Khatlon oblast (Kurgan-tube) and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO – Khorog). The aim was to develop journalists’ skills in research and analysis, and presentation of balanced coverage of environmental issues, including climate change.
• The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia takes action to protect health from climate change
  23-08-2011
  To safeguard the health of its citizens from such risks, the Macedonian Government adopted earlier in 2011 a national health adaptation strategy to climate change and action plan, and established a national heat-health action plan to prevent and cope with the health effects of heat-waves. The strategy and its action plan were developed by the Ministry of Health with guidance from WHO/Europe as part of the project “Protecting health from climate change – A seven country initiative”, implemented with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
• WHO issues new advice on heat-waves
  22-07-2011
  Over the last week, several countries in south-eastern Europe have experienced a severe heat-wave. WHO/Europe has issued new information sheets with advice for the general public, medical professionals and health services on how to deal with the health effects of a heat-wave.
• New WHO report on health co-benefits of climate change mitigation from the housing sector
  20-06-2011
  Evaluation of the health impacts of climate mitigation strategies is critical to informed decisions that will attain the greatest combined gain for health, well-being and sustainable development. In fact, there is good evidence that many climate mitigation strategies can yield both immediate and more sustained global public health benefits – in rich and poor societies, temperate or tropical, urban and rural. Often these health benefits can be derived at comparatively low cost – and at almost no cost to resource-strapped health services – but rather through more careful, strategic, and health-focused development investments.
• Protecting health from climate change in Kyrgyzstan
  26-05-2011
  Kyrgyzstan is intensifying its activities on health protection from climate change. This week the Minister of Health agreed to the development of a health adaptation strategy and action plan to protect human health.
• Assessing the climate change impacts in the Mediterranean region. Rome, Italy, 23-25 May 2011
  23-05-2011
  WHO/Europe coordinated the health aspects of CIRCE, an international project co-funded by the European Union on climate change and impacts research in the Mediterranean environment.  The final conference of CIRCE, opening today, presents the first comprehensive regional assessment of climate change impacts in the Mediterranean, to which WHO/Europe contributed with the health chapter. On the last day, the conference will discuss different aspects with stakeholders.
• Managing negative impacts of heat-waves: symposium held in Croatia on heat and health action plans
  18-05-2011
  Climate change has an impact on morbidity and mortality. As Europe, Australia and New Zealand have experienced, heat-waves increase awareness of the connection between health and high temperatures.
• Development of a national climate change and health adaptation strategy in Tajikistan
  13-05-2011
  Under the framework of the German Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) project “Protecting health from climate change”, the WHO Country office in Tajikistan organized a special consultation meeting of the working group for the development of the national climate change and health adaptation strategy in Khoja Obi Garm.
• Ministers push environment and health commitments forward
  05-05-2011
  Environment and health ministers, meeting in Paris this week, have agreed on how to monitor progress in reducing the adverse health impact of environmental threats across the European Region. The first meeting of the European Ministerial Board on Environment and Health took place on 4-5 May 2011.
• Protecting people in Uzbekistan from the effects of climate change
  28-04-2011
  Uzbekistan is one of seven countries (China, Bhutan, Kenya, Fiji, Barbados, Jordan) implementing the global project on public health adaptation to climate change funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF).
• Workshop on Climate Change and Health Vulnerability in Tajikistan, 16 March 2011
  31-03-2011
  On 16 March 2011 the WHO Country office in the Republic of Tajikistan in cooperation with the Ministry of Health conducted a workshop on the development of a National Climate Change and Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS). 
• Urban water management in focus on World Water Day
  22-03-2011
  Under the theme “Water for cities”, World Water Day 2011 focuses on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water and sanitation systems.
• Training for journalists inTajikistan on health impact of climate change
  11-03-2011
  A training workshop for media professionals working with climate change and health was held 4-5 March 2011 in Tajikistan.
• Earth Hour: use energy wisely
  09-03-2011
  20.30 to 21.30 on Saturday 26 March 2011 will mark Earth Hour, when lights will be switched off around the globe so people can take a stand against climate change. Reducing overall energy use and encouraging the uptake of renewable energy sources have a dual benefit for health. This year we are being encouraged to “Go beyond the hour!”  
• Second issue of WHY Newsletter discusses the climate change challenges to health
  28-02-2011
• Green transport benefits health, creates jobs and combats climate change
  17-12-2010
• Health and climate change on the agenda at COP16
  10-12-2010
  Yesterday, the Minister of Health of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia outlined the health effects of climate change and the strategy that his country has adopted to address them, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico.
• WHO international conference seeks consensus on public health recommendations for extreme weather events. Bonn, Germany, 29-30 November 2010
  03-11-2010
  This international conference aims to start putting the European Framework for Action in practice through a review of the international experience in adaptation to climate change, with a focus on extreme weather events.
• Progress towards MDG 7 on ensuring environmental responsibility faces challenges in the WHO European Region
  01-11-2010
  The report Millennium Development Goals in the WHO European Region. A situational analysis at the eve of the five-year countdown points to the need to strengthen health systems to reach the MDGs. Special attention is given to inequities and to synergies between the MDGs. MDG 7, aiming to ensure environmental responsibility, has a fundamental role in safeguarding human health and survival.
• Extreme heat-wave and wildfires cause public health concerns in the Russian Federation
  17-08-2010
  Wildfires that started in mid-July 2010 in the Central and Volga federal districts of the Russian Federation have produced a dense plume of smoke over hundreds of kilometres. The situation is aggravated by the continuing heat-wave.
• Preventing health effects from heat
  14-06-2010
  Temperatures are on the rise in the European Region. Countries and individuals should be prepared to cope with the heat. WHO/Europe has made available guidance and tools to support health services in planning and making decisions, and to inform the public on do's and dont's.
• Climate change in Malta: new report
  18-05-2010
  Climate change puts Malta at particular risk from flash-floods, water- and food-related hazards and (potentially) vector-borne diseases, according to a new report: “Health effects of climate change in the Maltese islands”, by the Environmental Health Directorate of Malta and WHO/Europe.
• European governments adopt comprehensive plan to reduce environmental risks to health by 2020
  15-05-2010
  The Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health closed in Parma, Italy, on 12 March 2010. In this first major gathering of health and environment ministers since the Copenhagen conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change last December, European governments pledged to integrate health issues into climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, policies and strategies in all sectors.