I grew up in Bokaro Steel City
in eastern India,
an industrial township
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, England’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 chains --
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)