Is improving global public health compatible with saving the climate? Exploring the discourses of health and climate change

摘要

The climate change discourse holds that burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change. Therefore, emissions must be reduced in order to avoid climate change. Further, it holds that climate change deteriorates global public health. Acting on climate change is thought to prevent negative health outcomes. Parallel to the discourse of climate change, there is an ongoing discourse on global health. We take the moral imperative to provide all humans with appropriate healthcare, food, housing and other key elements to live long and healthy lives, to be the basis of the global health discourse.