I grew up in Bokaro Steel City in eastern India,
an industrial townships
surrounded by power plants and steel smelters.
One of my fondest memories as a child
was to stare in the evenings at the beautiful orange skies
and flaring chimneys of the steel plant.
Little did I know at that time
that these were all classic signs of severe air pollution.
Cities like Bokaro were dubbed as the temples of modern India
that propelled the country into the 21st century.
I now work at the intersection of environment, health and justice.
I've been in the space for nearly two decades,
and my experience tells
that the negative impacts of industrialization
have outweighed the good.
I've also in my work come across several individuals and groups who,
despite all odds,
go beyond their call of duty to serve their communities.
I find health care professionals working in polluted places,
as one such group who strive to do everything they can
to protect their patients and communities from risk.
For example, Meena, a health worker from Korba district in central India.
Her job is to provide maternal care to pregnant women.
However, Meena lives in a region
that is surrounded by coal and power plants
and is considered among the top five critically polluted places in India.
So Meena also gives advice
on how to protect the newborn children from the dangers of air pollution.
Meena and thousands of other health workers in India
and across the world
apply a concept that has been with us since at least the fifth century BC
when Hippocrates, the Greek physician,
also considered as the father of modern medicine,
wrote about the role of physicians in his book "Of the Epidemics."
He said, and I quote,
"The physician must be able to tell the antecedents,
know the present and foretell the future.
Must mitigate these things
with two special objects in view with regard to disease.
Namely, to do good
or to do no harm."
The doctrine of "do no harm"
forms the basis of the Hippocratic Oath,
one of the oldest and most widely known codes of ethics.
Now the recitation of the Hippocratic Oath may be symbolic today,
but most health professionals adhere to it daily,
as we have witnessed in the last two years of the COVID-19 crisis.
I am here to make a case for two things --
placing health at the heart of climate solutions
and placing the philosophy of “first, do no harm”
at the heart of all decisions beyond health,
including those taken by our CEOs and politicians.
(Applause)
Now let me be clear about one fact.
The climate crisis is a health crisis.
It threatens our air, water, food, shelter, security,
all the basics on which the human life depends.
Burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or transport
is a major driver for climate change
and a main contributor to air pollution.
Globally, air pollution causes
seven million premature deaths each year.
That's 13 deaths every minute.
Way more than the death toll of COVID by the end of summer of 2021.
And the poor and the marginalized are more severely impacted.
Now extreme climate events not only threaten people’s health
but health care's own infrastructure and capacity to respond.
The deadly floods of 2018 in Kerala, in India,
the state that I live in,
forced hospitals to evacuate patients,
suspend surgeries and critical care.
Others faced power outages,
many reported destruction of the entire stocks
of vaccines and medical supplies.
And similar experiences have been documented in other parts of the world.
Now there’s also a paradox here, and with it an opportunity arises.
While the health sector plays a central role
in responding to the climate crisis,
the sector itself contributes to nearly five percent
of the net global greenhouse gas emissions and growing.
Health care professionals understand
the seriousness of their own climate footprint.
In the last couple of years,
we have seen an enormous momentum within the sector
in charting a course towards transformative healthcare
that starts with climate solutions.
This momentum is guided by a zero-emissions,
climate resilience, and health equity road map.
For example, the state of Chhattisgarh in India
has solarized over 900 community health centers
and pledged to attain 100 percent solarization
to provide energy access,
thus anchoring the resilience of the community
and protecting the most vulnerable.
Last year, India’s National Health Service
began charting a course to zero emissions by 2045.
This year,
40 institutions representing 3,000 hospitals in 18 countries
followed suit
and worked with Health Care Without Harm to decarbonize health care --
its buildings, its operations and supply chain --
in a race to zero.
Doctors for Clean Air and Climate Action
is mobilizing thousands of doctors across India
on the issue of air pollution and health to advocate for better policies.
Time has come that we measure the advancement of our civilization
through the metric of health rather than metric of wealth.
But here also --
(Applause)
But here also lies one of our biggest roadblocks:
it is impossible to have healthy people on a sick planet.
The blatant disregard for environment,
which is entrenched in our current economic and social models,
has pushed the natural world to its limits.
Failure to ask basic questions like
who is this business decision going to harm,
or what is the impact of the current policy choice
on the most marginalized
or on the future generations
has brought us to this crisis.
COVID-19 is a clear example of our broken relationship with nature.
It has also shown the deep interconnections
between the health of the planet and human health.
We need to urgently mend our relationship with the planet,
and this is where the principle of “first, do no harm” in decisions
becomes critical.
Now let me clarify one point here because I don't want any ambiguity.
When I say "do no harm,"
I do not mean that we should not explore bold and courageous solutions.
We desperately need to be innovative in the face of crisis.
But there is a lot of bad, wrongful,
harmful and unjust behavior that happens knowingly,
and that needs to stop.
(Applause)
The overarching theme of the Hippocratic oath
is the idea that the individual who is reciting the pledge
is making a personal dedication to ethical and committed care
and putting their patients first.
In Korba, Meena embodies this philosophy.
She's doing her bit in protecting her community.
However, that is not enough.
The scale of challenges that we face today
demands that all of us, individually and collectively,
independently of our position, power, agency or resources
adopt a similar dedication and commitment.
And as a first step,
we must all include the principle of doing no harm
in all decisions, big and small, for all present and future actions,
and put the health of our planet and ours first.
Thank you.
(Applause)