No country immune from the health harms of climate change - as COVID-19 pandemic offers glimpse of future disruption to lives and livelihoods around the world and in Canada

OTTAWA, ON, Dec. 2, 2020 /CNW/ - Canadian researchers have once again pulled data from the 2020 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change to tell the Canadian story. Like countries around the world, Canada is facing a worrisome outlook yet as the themes of climate change and the health of Canadians remain fundamentally linked.

Based on the 40+ international indicators gathered annually by the Lancet Countdown, Canadian health advocates, Drs. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers and Finola Hackett, developed a Canadian analysis, with recommendations, that highlights the growing impact of extreme heat and air pollution on population health.

"If we address the converging crisis of worsening climate conditions and declining health together, we can mitigate these shocks and achieve health and economic benefits instead," says co-author, Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers, a family medicine resident from the University of Montreal Faculty of Medicine. "The Global and the Canadian reports identify the key issues that must be addressed by governments and all sectors of society." New data generated by The Lancet explores heat-related mortality and its economic costs and labour capacity loss, along with ongoing concerns about air pollution.

"As we consider the post-COVID era that lies ahead, this data reminds us that we have the capacity and opportunity to address some of the most deeply imbedded inequities that continue to impede societal and economic advancements that lead to better health," says Dr. Finola Hackett, a resident in rural family medicine at the University of Calgary (Lethbridge program). "We can't ignore the impact of climate change any more." The report calls for a joint response to the converging COVID and climate crises to deliver a triple win of better health, a carbon-neutral sustainable economy and environmental protection.

Key findings in the Canadian context include:

• Impacts of extreme heat and global warming: 
• In Canada, heat-related deaths in the population that is over 65 have increased by 58% in the last two decades. Heat-related deaths rose to over 2,700 deaths in 2018.
• The economic cost of this heat-related mortality in 2018 was estimated at 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) compared to 0.2% in 2000. These costs are comparable to the average income of 263,400 Canadians, or roughly the population of Gatineau, QC, or Saskatoon, SK.
• Canada is warming at double the global average rate, and even more rapidly in the northern regions. Five of the ten highest ranking years for heatwave exposure in the country have occurred since 2010.
• Older persons are particularly vulnerable, as are those with a range of pre-existing conditions including asthma and diabetes.
• The last four years have seen a 14% increase in annual daily population exposure to wildfires in Canada, compared with the early 2000s, worsening respiratory illnesses and leading to community displacement in the west of the country.
• The report highlights supporting and learning from Indigenous-led approaches that foster adaptation to rapid warming in Indigenous communities, particularly in the north.

• Air pollution:
• In 2018 in Canada, there was a total of 8,400 premature deaths related to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) in Canada, of which 7,200 were attributed to human sources (e.g., emissions from households, such as the burning of fuel for heating and cooling, and transport, power, waste, and other areas of emissions). That number is four times greater than the death toll from vehicular accidents in Canada.
• Fossil-fuel based transport continues to be the biggest source of air pollution.
• Canada is making inroads in terms of the use of electricity for road transport, which has increased 40% between 1990 and 2017. However, fossil fuels still account for over 95% of road transport emissions.
• Low-income Canadians, ethnic minorities, Indigenous communities and other groups at risk are unfairly burdened by the health impacts of air pollution.

• Healthcare systems:
• The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on the current ability of healthcare systems to cope with the sorts of future health shocks that climate change may generate and options for net-zero health service delivery.
• Data shows that Canada's healthcare sector is responsible for approximately 5% of annual greenhouse gas emissions and has one of the largest carbon footprints in the world.
• Like COVID-19, climate change disproportionately affects the health of underprivileged groups.

The Canadian authors echo the advice of 120 world-leading health and climate academics and clinicians who warn that an ever-hotter world, and extreme weather events, will likely produce shocks that threaten global health, disrupt lives and livelihoods, and overwhelm healthcare systems. They also insist that Canada has an opportunity to build a more just, sustainable society, by directly including all those most affected in its response to the dual crisis of climate change and a world-wide pandemic.

The authors conclude their analysis with an argument that on the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, when the world pledged to limit global warming, Canada can, and must, implement comprehensive plans to deliver on its commitment to limiting global temperature increases to well below 2C. If aligned with the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, these efforts can deliver immediate and longer-term health and economic benefits, according to this Canadian analysis.

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change is a collaboration between experts from more than 38 institutions including the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank, University College London, and Tsinghua University.

SOURCE Canadian Medical Association

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