Overview
- The WHO-appointed paneuropean commission, which handed its report to officials in Geneva on Sunday ahead of the World Health Assembly, urges the agency to label climate change a “health emergency of international concern.”
- The 11-member group led by former Iceland prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir includes ex‑German health minister Karl Lauterbach and cites a growing threat to health, security, social cohesion and human rights backed by mortality estimates.
- The report asks member states to change WHO rules so the organization can declare and direct responses to noninfectious crises such as extreme heat, a step that would require agreement at the World Health Assembly and has not occurred.
- The authors propose a WHO climate information hub, early heat warning systems, two‑year reviews of countries’ health‑system readiness, and the removal of fossil‑fuel subsidies to cut risk at the source.
- The commission points to research estimating about 600,000 annual European deaths linked to fossil‑fuel pollution and roughly 60,000 heat deaths in 2024, while some scientists warn the emergency label could dilute the term’s force.