Towards a Healthier Future: Bridging Air Pollution, Climate Change, Energy and Health

From October 9th to 13th, 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Environmental Health Conference and the Meeting of the High-level Technical Advisory Group and Scientific Advisory Group (GAP-TAG/SAG) were successfully held at Peking University Health Science Center. This conference is jointly hosted by the World Health Organization and Peking University Health Science Center, and co-organized by the School of Public Health of Peking University, the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University, and the Department of Earth System Science of Tsinghua University.
This conference is co-organized by the Youth Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Mutagens.
The chairpersons of the conference are Dr. MariaNeira, Director of the Department of Environmental Health of the World Health Organization, and Professor Wei Huang from the School of Public Health of Peking University.
The theme of the World Health Organization’s Global Conference on Environmental Health to be held on October 9, 2024 is “Towards a Healthier Future: Bridging Air Pollution, Climate Change, Energy and Health”. The conference adopts forms such as special reports, roundtable forums and expert dialogues.
By promoting in-depth exchanges and dialogues among experts from different fields, and facilitating the policy transformation of cutting-edge research and achievements in the field of environmental health, we contribute wisdom and solutions to global environmental health governance.
More than a hundred experts and scholars from universities in Europe, America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, representatives of technology enterprises, as well as representatives from international organizations such as the WHO and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis attended this conference in person.
The conference was also live-streamed online simultaneously.

The scene of the opening ceremony

 

At the opening ceremony of the conference Wang Jiadong, Deputy Director of Peking University Health Science Center, MariaNeira, Director of the Department of Environmental Health of the World Health Organization (WHO), Qiao Jianrong, Coordinator of the WHO China Office, Li Xiaocui, Deputy Director of the Immunization Department of the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration Zhang Xingying, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology and Climate Change Department of the China Meteorological Administration, and Li Mingxia, director of the Environmental Sanitation Department of the Legal Affairs and Standardization Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, delivered speeches respectively. Wong Ka-tung said that the world is currently facing unprecedented environmental and health challenges. Ensuring high-quality human health has become a core scientific issue that urgently needs to be addressed globally. He hopes that this meeting can effectively promote research on the complex relationship between air pollution, climate change, energy and health, and facilitate the formulation and implementation of global solutions. MariaNeira pointed out that although Beijing still faces many challenges, the air quality in the city has significantly improved. This blue sky is inseparable from the joint efforts of scientists, who have placed public health issues on the priority agenda of environmental policy-making. She emphasized that the World Health Organization has been committed to formulating health policies for the transition to clean energy and assessing the global implementation effect of the policies based on the burden of diseases related to air pollution. Qiao Jianrong believes that China’s remarkable achievements in improving air quality are attributed to the government’s firm commitment, policy measures and coordinated research actions. Facing the public health challenges of global environmental pollution and climate change, she hopes that through this conference, China can further strengthen cooperation with the international community, promote global actions, and jointly address climate change and air pollution. Li Xiaocui introduced the role of policies, research and international cooperation in China’s environmental health work, especially that health promotion has become an important part of the recently released “National Action Plan for Healthy Adaptation to Climate Change (2024-2030)”. Zhang Xingying said that in response to health threats such as global climate change, forest wildfires and air pollution, the China Meteorological Administration provides environmental monitoring data to low – and middle-income countries to help enhance the global climate health risk early warning capacity.
Li Mingxia stated that the National Department of Ecology and Environment has been committed to promoting precise, scientific and law-based pollution control, continuously improving the quality of the ecological environment, and will gradually advance the construction of an environmental health risk assessment system.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Zhan Siyan, the dean of the School of Public Health at Peking University Health Science Center.

From top left to bottom right: Deputy Director Wang Jiadong, Director MariaNeira, Coordinator Qiao Jianrong, Deputy Director Li Xiaocui, Deputy Director Zhang Xingying, Director Li Mingxia

President Zhan Siyan presided over the opening ceremony

After the opening ceremony, the guests present took a group photo as a memento

In the keynote speeches of the morning meeting, HeatherAdair-Rohani from the Department of Environmental Health of the World Health Organization, Academician Tao Shu from the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University, Luo Yong, the director of the Department of Earth Sciences of Tsinghua University, and Huang Wei, the director of the Institute of Environmental Medicine of Peking University, The collaborative working mechanisms of various departments of the World Health Organization, global energy consumption and indoor environmental pollution, climate change and response, as well as the health challenges of air pollution were discussed respectively. Dr. HeatherAdair-Rohani called on governments around the world to incorporate air pollution into public health policies, emphasizing cooperative efforts in multiple fields such as public health, energy and the environment to achieve effective policy implementation. Academician Hui Shu emphasized that clean energy has great potential in improving the living conditions of urban and rural residents in China and reducing pollution, providing an important scientific basis for the future promotion of clean heating and cooking energy. Professor Luo Yong shared the team’s exploration and practical application in integrating human health into the Earth system model, providing new ideas for promoting climate change and enhancing public health. Professor Huang Wei introduced the latest progress in the field of global air pollution and risk governance, including the development of air pollution monitoring and exposure assessment technologies, the prevention and control of health risks throughout the entire life cycle of the population, and the formulation of evidence-based environmental health governance strategies. The keynote report was hosted by Professor CAI Wenjia from the Department of Earth Sciences at Tsinghua University.