Virtual Expert Talk on Health and Climate: a transition to a resilient future
The current global pandemic of covid-19 underlines our need for resilient, sustainable and healthy societies. Initiating a transformation in the intersection of climate and health is an appealing opportunity to implement health targets aligned with the targets of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, the British Embassy Vienna and the Climate Change Centre Austria were pleased to host a virtual expert talk on public health and climate change on Tuesday, 13 October 2020, 14.00 CEST/13.00 BST.
The virtual expert talk aimed at:
- Contributing to an improvement of the science-policy interface as well as cross-policy cooperation, so that scientific knowledge on the intersection between climate change and health can be picked up in the field and experience from the public health and climate policy sector can report open questions back to science.
- Raising awareness about issues related to the intersection between climate change and health, which may be different in the UK and Austria, in order to enable a valuable exchange of experiences as well as insights.
25 participants from various backgrounds joined our virtual expert talk on Tuesday, 13 October 2020 (e.g. experts from the public health and climate policy sector, scientists and other experts from research institutions, medical practitioners).
After a welcome adress by British Ambassador to Austria Robert Leigh Turner two scientific impulse talks were held by Jessica Beagley (Lancet Countdown) and Willi Haas (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna) with regard to the following guiding questions:
- What are the highest climate change risks for personal and public health? How can we increase resilience in our countries?
- How can we increase cooperation and synergies between the areas of public health and climate change? Where can we identify overlaps and common interests?
- What can climate and public health policy learn from the Covid-19 pandemic?
- How can we bring green recovery plans and just transition to life?
You can find more information on the outcome of the event in our report (see link below).