International Workshop on Climate Change and Global Public Health: Law, Justice and Governance, 8-9 Feb.

3 February 2010

Dr Keith Syrett and Dr Oliver Quick are launching their Global Health Justice Network initiative by hosting an international workshop "Climate Change and Global Public Health: Law, Justice and Governance" at the Bristol Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information on 8-9 February. Speakers are attending from the University of Alberta, University of Bergen, Leeds University, Pennsylvania State University, Swansea University, the University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia. The workshop is funded by the Worldwide Universities Network and the University of Bristol Institute for Advanced Studies.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported that climate change contributes to the burden of disease and mortality. Effects of climate change on human health may be direct — including those relating to thermal stress, extreme weather events, increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, changing patterns of infectious disease or altered distribution of allergic symptoms; or indirect — such as those arising from population dislocation and food availability and distribution (eg fish stocks).

A number of controversial questions arise. Can legal and regulatory strategies be of value in assisting governments in addressing and/or preventing the impacts of climate change upon the health of their populations? To what extent do legal mechanisms offer a form of redress to individuals whose health has been harmed either by climate change or by measures taken to mitigate or adapt to its effects? Do principles of human rights law limit or enhance the capability of governments and the international community to take measures to alleviate the health impacts of climate change?

Issues of social justice are also fundamental, given that deaths attributable to climate change have been almost entirely confined to poorer populations which bear minimal responsibility for creation of the risk. Climate change therefore serves to exacerbate the central global problem of health inequity.

 Further details about the workshop and the network

Please contact Dr Keith Syrett for further information.