The Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) Planetary Health Policy Team has presented a written request titled, “Requests for the G7 Hiroshima Summit and Related Ministerial Meetings: Promoting Measures for Climate Change and Planetary Health That Keep Pace With the International Community.”

In recent years, discussions on health and the environment have been receiving significant amounts of attention. During the 27th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022, various activities were undertaken under themes related to the environment and health including a side event hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) where global organizations in the health sector presented the “COP27 Health Community Policy Recommendations.” We also began to see the results of discussions on issues related to the climate and health through the inclusion of the phrase “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment” in the statement issued after the COP27.

The COP26 Health Programme was launched at COP26 in 2021 and as of December 12, 2022, the time of writing, 62 countries have formally committed to that initiative. Those countries include four G7 members: Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. After the conclusion of COP26, with sights set on transitioning to concrete action for achieving the Programme’s objectives, the COP26 Health Programme was renamed the “Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH)” in 2022.

The HGPI Planetary Health Policy Team has presented a written request for the G7 Hiroshima Summit as a follow-up to our “Recommendations for the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit: Advance Measures for Planetary Health That is in Line with Global Progress” presented in November 2022. It contains the following two requests:

• Request 1: The Government of Japan should discuss the creation of health systems that are climate-resilient, sustainable, and climate-neutral in the context of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
• Request 2: The Government of Japan should commit to the goals of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH) alongside the Governments of France and Italy (who have also yet to join) and advance domestic and global initiatives

This year, in 2023, the G7 Hiroshima Summit is scheduled for May 19 through 21; the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Nagasaki on May 13 and 14; and the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment will take place in Sapporo on April 15 and 16. The topic of climate and health must remain a priority item at the G7 Hiroshima Summit and related ministerial meetings, and those discussions must continue examining healthcare systems that are climate-resilient, sustainable, and climate-neutral.

For details, please see the PDF linked below.