El consorcio SPHERA denuncia la falta de financiación europea para investigación en cambio climático y salud
“According to information on the upcoming Horizon Europe 2025 call for proposals, the European Commission has proposed a budget of around €970 million for health research, but it is alarming that no funds are allocated to research on the effects of climate change in health. This has to change.”
In this way, with the previous paragraph, a statement begins with which the SPHERA consortium It denounces what it sees as a “disappointing omission” in the draft of the European Commission’s research aid program Horizon 2025. SPHERA brings together the main European research institutions on the environment, climate and health, including ISGlobal.
“Let’s not wait for the next crisis to act,” they claim from SPHERA, while recalling that the data indicate that the Mediterranean region is experiencing faster warming than the world average. “The European Union, together with the World Health Assembly and world authorities, has recognized the serious risks that climate change poses to human health,” he argues. For this reason, consider that by ignoring specific approaches to climate change and health in research programs, we are incurring a contradiction.
Extreme weather events, warming and other health threats
The scientific personnel who sign the document recall that climate change already poses a serious threat to health in Europe, using as an example extreme climatic events, such as the recent floods in Valencia or those that occurred in Italy, Germany, Poland or Central Europe.
Another of the key issues to be addressed is the risk posed by the increase in temperatures, after a year, 2024, which will once again break heat records and when there are studies that quantify attributable deaths at around 70,000 and 47,000, respectively. . to the heat in the summers of 2022 and 2023.
“In addition, the recent results of the great EXHAUSTION project «point out the synergistic effects of air pollution and heat on cardiorespiratory health across Europe, with a higher risk of death from these diseases on days with a mix of high temperatures and high air pollution,» they point out.
Other climate-related health issues that concern the scientific community are “the prolongation of the political season and the introduction of new species of pollen” or “the sharp increase in forest fires and related air pollution episodes.”
common front
The SPHERA statement closes with an offer to work together in the search for solutions: “Our institutions are willing to support the EU in the development and application of evidence-based solutions that are necessary to protect public health and build a Europe that is resilient in the face of climate change.”
SPHERA statement
Read the full statement here.
