Citing IPBES Reports, 200 Health Journals Urge WHO to Declare Nature Crisis as Health Emergency

Description of Impact(s) (English Only) Over 200 health journals have urged the World Health Organization to declare the climate and nature crisis as a global health emergency.

To make their case, the authors cite science published in the report for the IPBES-IPCC co-sponsored workshop on biodiversity and climate change (2021). "The research communities that provide the evidence for the 2 COPs [...] were brought together for a workshop in 2020 when they concluded that 'Only by considering climate and biodiversity as parts of the same complex problem…can solutions be developed that avoid maladaptation and maximize the beneficial outcomes'", they explained.

"Globally, about a fifth of people rely on wild species for food and their livelihoods," also quoted the authors, taking from the IPBES Assessment report on the sustainable use of wild species (2022).

The editorial was published in leading titles from around the world, including The BMJ, The Lancet, JAMA, the Medical Journal of Australia, the East African Medical Journal, the National Medical Journal of India and Dubai Medical Journal.