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.
On 22 March, HEAL, together with 35+ medical, health, environmental, public health civil society organisations has sent a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Timmermans, Commissioners Sinkevičius and Kyriakides, calling on them and their services to protect people’s health from air pollution, especially that of vulnerable groups such as children or patients already suffering from disease, and, in the upcoming revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive, to please come forward with a proposal to introduce binding EU clean air standards to fully meet WHO air quality recommendations by 2030 at the latest.
The European Commissioner for Environment Sinkevicius has now come back: full reply.
