Global Health Leaders call for life-saving transition away from Fossil Fuels at COP30

PHYSICIANS, NURSES, and health and medical students representing millions of health workers worldwide attending the COP30 in Brazil, issued an urgent call for countries to support a global commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels (TAFF). Speaking at the joint “Health Leaders all for Life-Saving Transition Away from Fossil Fuels” press conference on November 18, 2025 experts stressed that TAFF is not simply a good climate and energy policy option: it is a public health imperative and the fastest public health intervention available to save lives.

The press conference, moderated by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment’s (CAPE) Health and Economic Policy Director, Leah Temper, and with speakers from CAPE and from prominent international health organizations including the International Council of Nurses (ICN), the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA), and the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) reminded attendees that air pollution already causes over seven million premature deaths annually, heatwaves increasingly threaten lives and livelihoods, and climate-driven disasters are pushing health systems to their breaking point.

The speakers emphasized that a TAFF commitment grounded in justice, as proposed by Brazil and a growing coalition of countries, is essential to protect both the climate and the communities who have long borne the greatest health burdens from fossil fuels.

Pregnant women exposed to fossil fuel pollution face higher risks of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and congenital abnormalities. Children exposed to air polluted by fossil fuels suffer more asthma, respiratory infections, and developmental harms,” they pointed out.

“Adults face increased rates of cardiovascular disease, respiratory distress, cancers, kidney and liver damage, and neurological conditions, the health professionals argued.

Even after extraction sites and refineries close, their toxic legacy continues to poison air, soil, and water for decades.

The health practitioners also pointed out that inequities deepen without a Fossil fuels harm everyone, and over 99% of the world’s population breathes air that does not meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines. But the harms of fossil fuel extraction and processing fall hardest on Indigenous peoples, low-income communities, workers including health workers, and fence-line neighbourhoods around the world.While communities in every region of the world are facing growing threats from climate change, disadvantaged communities have fewer resources and less recourse, so are disproportionately impacted by climate-driven heatwaves, extreme weather, and infectious disease outbreaks. Furthermore, health systems that are already spread thin and underfunded, serving communities in the most vulnerable circumstances, will be the most impacted by this increased disease burden causing strain on their health workforces, health resources and abilities to deliver high quality care.

Health leaders at the COP30 in Brazil also underscored that fossil fuels are incompatible with healthy futures and that health evidence strengthens the political case for transition: protecting health systems, reducing preventable diseases, and saving lives. By supporting TAFF, countries are choosing cleaner air, healthier communities, and stronger, more resilient health systems. “This is about preventing illness

rather than treating its symptoms,” speakers stressed.

The coalition of health leaders has called on governments to:

•Commit to developing a decisive roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels in line with the best available health and climate science.

•Commit to a rapid and just transition, ensuring protections and support for workers and communities most affected by fossil fuel extraction and climate impacts.

•Integrate health evidence into all climate decision-making, recognizing that delaying action on fossil fuels comes at an immense and preventable human cost.

•Strengthen health systems and health workforces to cope with rising climate-related health impacts while accelerating investments in clean energy and pollution reduction.

“Every year of delay means more asthma attacks, more cardiovascular emergencies, more cancers, and more premature deaths, all of them preventable. Transitioning away from fossil fuels isn’t just good climate policy: it’s life-saving health policy,” said Dr. Joe Vipond, past President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE).

“In 2023 wildfires forced the evacuation of our hundred-bed hospital down to Vancouver.The costs were staggering, Dr. Courtney Howard,Vice-Chair, Global Climate and Health Alliance said at the gathering.

“Smoke from these fires circled the planet—exposing 354 million people to increased air pollution leading to over 82,000 premature deaths globally. We must adapt healthcare systems—but we will not be able to maintain high-quality healthcare along current emissions trajectories. There is no safety in a fossil-fuelled status quo. We must drive toward a clean-energy future with the same commitment we use in CPR, where we say: push hard, push fast, don’t stop.”

Gustavo Henrique Nicoletti Dalle Cort, of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) said: “As medical students, we will be the generation of doctors whose careers will be defined by responding to the impacts of climate change.We are aware that every degree of warming will make our jobs harder, it will make living with quality harder. Transitioning away from fossil fuels is the only option, to give us a future in which we can realistically keep our patients healthy”.

Meanwhile, Gillian Adynski of the International Council of Nurses (INC) noted, “We saw during COVID-19, and in every acute disaster from hurricanes to floods to heat waves, that it does not take much to overwhelm a health care system and, in turn, nursing and health workforces. If fossil fuel proliferation continues, our systems will be pushed past their limits. The health impacts will extend beyond direct illness to indirect harms like burned-out nurses, strained health workers, and destabilized and unsafe care. To protect health systems and the people who rely on them, we must stop the proliferation of fossil fuels”.