Public Health Organization Urging a Green Recovery from Coronavirus

The Independent article says that public health organisations worldwide, representing 40 million doctors, nurses, and other medical workers, have urged the leaders of the G20 to include climate change and pollution in its economic recovery plan (Boyle, 2020).

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 344,000 lives and has devasted the economy.  It threatened the health, food security, and freedom of communities, leaving them vulnerable. And these can happen again with climate change, the article says (Boyle, 2020).

Representatives of public health workers sent a letter to G20 leaders. Their message is clear. Pollution can cause premature deaths and diseases, and the resulting health bills can be unaffordable to many. A switch to a renewable and green economy will reduce pollution and, thus, health bills, create jobs that will not harm the environment, and can “spur global GDP gains of up to $100tn between now and 2050” (Boyle, 2020).

Their letter also urged the leaders of the G20 to involve their chief medical officer and chief scientific advisor in creating the economic stimulus package (Boyle, 2020).

About $7Tn has gone into economic relief packages, which health practitioners hope will go to renewables or clean energy (Boyle, 2020).

A survey by Oxford University shows that top financial minds agree that reducing carbon emissions is the best path to economic recovery (Boyle, 2020).