Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has invited Heads of State and Government along with business, finance, civil society and local leaders to a UN Climate Summit, September 23, 2014, in New York.  The Summit is aimed at catalyzing governments, industry and civil society towards making substantial commitments for reaching a low-carbon economy.

To support this effort, PHI and the Global Climate and Health Alliance are working to develop an official UN side event to the Summit, partnering with The Lancet.  Anticipated speakers include The Lancet’s Richard Horton; Johan Rockstrom (Stockholm Resilience Centre); Julio Frenk (Harvard School of Public Health); Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti;  and the World Health Organization’s Maria Nera, among others. The program will emphasize the impact climate change has on health, the opportunities for health through strategies to address climate change, and will feature key stakeholders in the discussion on climate change and health from health and other sectors.  By invitation, 70 attendees are expected at the NY venue, with a virtual reach of over 75,000 given direct mail networks and video outreach, in addition to a significant media announcement.

This Side Event will build on the WHO-convened First Global Conference on Climate Change and Health, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland August 27-29 the month prior to the UN Climate Summit, and will build momentum for the 2014 and 2015 UNFCCC Conferences of Parties, and inform Post-2015 Sustainable Development conversations currently underway, strengthening attention to health and climate in these important processes.

We are currently looking for event co-sponsors! Please contact us if you are interested.