CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH
Climate Change and Health: The Year in Review
SAEM PULSE | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021
By Caitlin Rublee, MD, MPH on behalf of SAEM’s Climate Change and Health Interest Group
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December 2019 marked one year since the 25th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP25). I had finished a late-night shift in the emergency department and arrived at the airport before dawn. My golden ticket, as any physician climate change fellow would call it, was close at hand as I waited in the security queue outside COP25 in Spain. Delegates and organizations represented their nations with booths. It was an idea foundry for a global collaborative path forward; my hopes were high. But disappointment soon followed. I met with other physicians at the U.S. Climate Action Center. We listened to local champions discuss their work and then made our way to the closed-door
“As emergency medicine physicians, we understand how climate-related extreme weather events alter patient care. ” session of U.S. delegates. We knocked on the door and were met by a single person. We enthusiastically inquired about socials or meet-and-greets but were told there were none. We quickly handed off a few resources before the door was closed. This was only the first of many lessons learned from attending COP25.
The following days included a climate strike attended by more than 500,000 people and a motivating Global Climate and Health Summit. The result of the conference was certainly not the Paris Agreement, which was adopted by 196 Parties at COP21. As delegates returned home, one question remained: How can public health be included in