Health Community Demands Ambition On Ending Fossil Fuel Dependence And Robust Investment In Protecting Communities

Bonn, 16 May 2025:- As the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) SB62 UN Climate Change Conference opens today in Germany - and ahead of this year’s COP30 Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil - the Global Climate and Health Alliance demands that governments ensure the “just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels”, called for by countries at 2023’s COP28, is translated into concrete, measurable, and accountable action. 
 
“Over the next two weeks, governments must protect people’s health by laying the groundwork for a just transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy sources - this must be matched by adaptation that promotes health, and underpinned by adequate finance that will effectively confront the climate crisis already driving devastating health impacts around the world”, said Jess Beagley, Policy Lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, which brings together over 200 health professionals and health civil society organisations and networks to address climate change. 
 
“Dependence on fossil fuels is the primary driver of health impacts from climate change, which is already straining healthcare systems around the world”, said Beagley. “Fossil fuel use is also a key air pollution culprit, causing millions of deaths annually from respiratory and cardiovascular disease, as well as developmental and cognitive issues.” 
 
“Developed countries must provide enough finance to developing countries, so that they can adapt and respond to these climate impacts, and transition to development pathways compatible with a healthy climate future”, said Beagley. “At COP29 rich countries could have committed financing that would support the Global South - yet they failed to deliver”. 
 
“Over the coming fortnight, governments can redeem themselves by delivering positive signals on the Baku to Belem Roadmap on climate finance, and in demonstrating willingness to prioritise public grants from developed to developing countries”, continued Beagley. “Developed countries must provide funding to prevent worsening climate change by addressing its causes; funding for countries to build resilience against the climate impacts they are already facing; and funding to recover and rebuild from destruction that they were unable to avoid.”
 
“In Bonn, countries must also make good on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) by supporting technical experts, enabling them to continue coordinating and refining their work”, said Beagley. “Down the line, delegations must ensure GGA indicators adopted at COP30 include means of implementation - namely finance, technology transfer, and capacity building – in order to ensure that countries actually have the capacity and resources to take the steps they must to protect their people”.
 
“Meanwhile, countries yet to submit their NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions - see notes below] must address these same priorities of mitigation, adaptation and finance at national level, including setting targets for reducing their emissions that are sufficiently ambitious to align with their fair shares towards the goals of the Paris Agreement”, said Beagley. “In their new NDCs, governments must commit to optimising health and building resilience, which will only be possible when supported by adequate domestic budget and international finance commitments, and they must commit to monitoring how those commitments are being implemented", said Beagley.
 
“Governments must also ensure that countries that have contributed the least to climate change but are facing its harshest impacts, must receive crucial international support”, said Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “From flooding that destroys homes and clinics and spreads cholera, to heatwaves that overwhelm hospitals with patients, to droughts and weather instability that ruin harvests, to wildfires spreading toxic smoke to communities thousands of miles away, in every country people are suffering from the impacts of climate change; low income developing countries are the most severely harmed and the least able to respond to and recover from the damages from this problem that they did not cause.” 
 
“Fossil fuels are at the root of climate change, as well as of air pollution and plastic contamination, as well as polluting our water and soil pollution. Collaboration amongst governments in Bonn must ensure that November’s COP30 takes a great leap towards ending the fossil fuel age and its devastating impact on human health”, said Miller. 
 
Ending Fossil Fuel Industry Influence
“A major impediment to action on climate change is the well-documented and deliberate efforts of certain industries to block progress”, said Miller. “For years, the fossil fuel industry has deliberately sown doubt and interfered with policy deliberations, has sent hundreds of lobbyists to COPs every year since the Paris Agreement was signed. Big agriculture is also very well organized, and increasingly attempting to slow COP action on agricultural practices that contribute to climate change. Without putting a halt to the influence of industries that have a vested interest in delaying progress on climate change, our chances are hampered from the get-go.”
 
“A clamour is now developing ahead of COP30 about how UNFCCC should counter the increasing representation at climate summits from high emitting industries like fossil fuels and big agriculture”, added Miller. “Two years ago, the UNFCCC Secretariat introduced new regulations forcing delegates to disclose their affiliations, but to date, there are no restrictions on participation - as a result, polluting industries driving climate change are everywhere at COP climate summits. The UNFCCC must urgently put in place stronger measures to limit the influence of industry and conflicts of interest - and to achieve this, it can learn from how other UN bodies, such as the World Health Organization, have responded to industry pressures from tobacco and alcohol companies.”
 
Brazil’s COP30 Presidency has voiced concerns over fossil fuel interference, plans to lead a “Global Ethical Stocktake” of COP processes, and has launched four “Support Circles”, including one focused on climate governance. 

“Brazil’s rare and critical opportunity to reform decision-making on global climate action should not be squandered”, said Miller.

• The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (article 5.3) says tobacco industry should be excluded from tobacco policymaking
• The WHO Global alcohol action plan 2022-2030 states that policymaking on alcohol “should be protected from commercial and other vested interests that can interfere with and undermine public health objectives”
• The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization also has principles for private sector engagement, and works to safeguard against any conflicting interests that a private sector entity may have, or undue influence they may exert.

Background on NDCs:

In 2025, all countries are required to update their "Nationally Determined Contributions" - their nationally specific set of commitments for how they will meet their fair share of achieving the targets set out in the Paris Agreement to limit warming to relatively safe levels. The NDCs are the primary mechanism by which international agreements achieved at COP are translated commitments by countries for the actions they will take. NDCs set the framework for national policies and programs that will actually deliver the climate action that is needed. Without strong NDCs, the agreements made at COP remain empty words.

In the past, while many countries have referenced the impact of climate change on health in their NDCs, few have fully integrated health objectives and outcomes throughout their national plans, missing critical opportunities to drive more ambitious climate action. To protect health through the development and implementation of their NDC, governments should consult with national health Ministries, academic health experts, and communities to ensure:

• alignment to limiting warming to 1.5C, reflecting fair share and pace of emissions reductions according to historical responsibility and present capability with inclusion of a timeline for fossil fuel phase out to avoid catastrophic physical and mental health impacts;
• actions across sectors which optimise health benefits of climate actions, such as clean air, nutritious diets, active and zero emission travel systems, and safe living environments;
• reduction of super pollutants including methane, black carbon and tropospheric ozone to avert near-term warming and avoid millions of premature deaths from air pollution each year
• timebound targets and indicators over time for implementation and health outcomes;
• consideration of domestic and financial contributions, costings and budgetary allocations for health related actions and quantification of returns on investment from health-related savings, highlighting the health costs of action and inaction.

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