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As the world transitions beyond the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the G7 Health Ministers met in Japan on 13 and 14 May 2023. Professor of Planetary Health, Tony Capon, was there and filed this editorial for InSight+.
Health leaders from the world’s biggest nations have expressed their concern about the rising impact of emissions from health care, but more urgent calls for change came from health and climate experts on the margins of the G7 Health Ministers summit.
Health Ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Nagaski, committing to working together across three primary areas: global health architecture, universal health coverage, and health innovation.
On global health architecture, their focus was on learning lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and support for the negotiation of a new instrument under the World Health Organization constitution to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
In relation to universal health care, the Health Ministers recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic had severely affected health systems across the world and re-affirmed the critical importance of achieving universal health care.
As health systems and health workers shifted to respond to COVID-19, there were major disruptions to other health services, including routine immunisation to prevent other infectious diseases, the provision of maternal and child health services, and the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases and mental health conditions.
The Health Ministers recognised the need for innovative solutions including digital health to deliver on these challenges. They also confirmed their commitment to work towards equitable access to medical countermeasures for health emergencies.
Triple planetary crisis
Notably, the communiqué from the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting also highlighted health impacts of the triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution (see paragraph 37, in particular).
The Health Ministers recognised that this is not only an issue for human health but also for animal and plant health and the environment.
The Health Ministers further recognised that marginalised groups are most affected by the triple planetary crisis, including rural and remote populations; ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities; people with disabilities; refugees; women; young people; the elderly and Indigenous peoples.
The Health Ministers confirmed their support for a One Health approach with strengthened multisectoral and transdisciplinary collaboration, and a recognition of the links between the health of people, animals and ecosystems.
They will hold a high level technical meeting on One Health in the second half of this year to advance collaborative action.
Nagasaki and its university
A vibrant city with a large natural harbour surrounded by hills, the Nagasaki metropolitan area has a population of about 400 000 people.
During the centuries in which Japan was largely closed off from the rest of the world (from about 1600 until 1860), Nagasaki was a portal for international exchange.
Nagasaki was devastated by the atomic bomb explosion on 9 August 1945.
The atomic bomb museum is compelling, with the final exhibit telling the story of continued efforts toward nuclear disarmament through the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
Nagasaki University, under the leadership of Professor Shigeru Kohno who is an infectious disease physician and has been the university’s president since 2017, recently identified planetary health as its unifying mission.
The university has established an Interfaculty Initiative in Planetary Health that brings together specialists from across the university’s disciplines, including environmental studies, sociology, economics, engineering, medicine, and other fields, to collaborate and address planetary health challenges.
Experts call for change
At the margins of the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting, I spoke at a Planetary Health Expert Meeting hosted by Nagasaki University. Other speakers included Dr Maria Neira, who leads on climate change and health at WHO headquarters, and Dr Alan Dangour, who helms the Wellcome Trust’s climate and health program.
Key messages from this expert meeting included the pressing need for more attention to health impacts of climate change, such as mental health impacts, which remain largely overlooked.
Importantly, speakers emphasised the urgent need for health systems to reduce the environmental footprint of the care they provide.
Next year, the 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2024) will be hosted by Nagasaki University from 18 to 22 November on the theme of Building Just and Sustainable Health Systems: Centring People and Protecting the Planet.
Much more to be done
Although it is a step forward to have G7 Health Ministers expressing concern about planetary health issues, there remains much more to be done.
Currently, there is no sign from these Health Ministers of a concerted effort to curb the environmental footprint of the health sector.
The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is striving for net zero, and the WHO has established the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH); however, the environmental footprint of health care does not yet seem to be a shared concern across all G7 countries.
G7 countries are the world’s biggest economies. They spend a lot on health care; for example, in the United States, the health care spending is about 18% of the gross domestic product.
There is clearly much potential to harness the purchasing power of health care to accelerate sustainability transitions across all societal sectors.
Tony Capon FAFPHM directs the Monash Sustainable Development Institute in Melbourne. He is a public health physician, a Commissioner with the Rockefeller Foundation—Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, a member of the MJA Editorial Advisory Group, and a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for the Climate and Health Alliance.
The statements or opinions expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy of the AMA, the MJA or InSight+ unless so stated.
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Love this article Tony need to ensure its in every medical curriculum Medical Deans