The newly released European State of the Climate 2024 annual report (ESOTC), co-published by the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), confirms what public health experts have long warned about: the health costs of climate change in Europe are rising fast, and so is the human toll.
Today, the Commission published its Zero Pollution Action Plan for air, water and soils (ZPAP).
Anne Stauffer, Director for Strategy and Campaigns at HEAL commented:
“The European Commission today has thrown out all the buzzwords on zero pollution – but behind the noise hides zero adequate action, which does not address the magnitude of health impacts of pollution: Insufficient commitment to acting without delay, insufficient commitment to letting science drive policy ambition and insufficient commitment to ending the financial support to pollution. Take air quality, for example – aiming at 55% reduction of health impacts from air pollution by 2030 is simply status quo: this is not the ambition level health groups expect to tackle the leading cause of health harm from environmental pollution. What is urgently needed is full alignment of EU’s legally binding air quality standards with the regularly updated WHO guidelines and the latest science.”
Find HEAL’s position on zero pollution here, outlining why we need to beat pollution today to prevent disease tomorrow, for everyone.
