Declare climate crisis a global public health emergency, experts tell WHO

‘If we carry on emitting at current rates, that will accelerate the risks to health for current and future generations’ including more flooding, the commission’s chief scientific adviser said. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said.

The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).