María Luisa Carcedo announces "ambitious" National Health and Environment Plan to UN

The acting minister took part on Sunday in the closing meeting of the Coalition for Social and Political Drivers of Climate Action entitled "Investing in climate: cutting emissions, cleaning our air and saving lives", within the framework of the 74th United Nations General Assembly.

"We all suffer from the effects of climate change in our daily lives", stressed María Luisa Carcedo. "According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths a year, of which 600,000 are children", she stressed. She also recalled that the World Bank calculated that air pollution costs the global economy more than 5 trillion dollars.

Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social"If we don't act faster, the victims caused by climate and environmental factors will continue to rise", she stressed. In this regard, she expressed the commitment of the Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Well-being to reducing climate change and its impact on the health of people. "In the next few months, we will present the National Health and Environment Plan, which will include input from other ministerial departments, regional governments and leading experts", she announced.

This plan will outline the main environmental factors that affect human health and will establish the goals and lines of action on this matter, one of which will be the fight against atmospheric pollution. Obviously this contains our commitments to the European Union and international bodies, particularly the WHO", she explained.

María Luisa Carcedo described the initiative as "ambitious" since it will address a wide range of issues, such as the impact of air quality on health, the management of chemical products, endocrine disrupters, bio-monitoring, environmental radio-activity, electro-magnetic fields and non-ionising radiation, ultraviolet radiation, disease-transmitting vectors and extreme temperatures.

In addition, the plan will include the implementation of a system of health and climate change indicators that help ascertain the real conditions of change and design a just transition through other measures depending on the characteristics of territories and people.

The acting minister recalled that Spain is aligned with achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with the Paris Agreement on climate change and with the goals of the European Union "to attain a carbon-neutral growth model that is inclusive and supportive, in which renewable energies and energy efficiency are the main drivers of this change".

Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar SocialBy way of example of this commitment, she explained that Spain has a Ministry for Ecological Transition. "The aim is to change the way of understanding the relationship between the economy and ecology", she explained. She recalled that the Government of Spain approved the Strategic Framework on Energy and Climate back in February, which includes the draft Climate Change and Energy Transition Act, the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 and the National Strategy for the Just Transition.

María Luisa Carcedo stressed that the Coalition for Social and Political Drivers of Climate Action "is a good example of group action to address a global health challenge". To date, 29 countries have signed up, 51 sub-national entities and one financial institution. "We hope that this workshop and the Climate Summit will lead to many more countries and entities joining up", she stated. The acting minister also trusts that this work will translate into commitments "that become specific actions".

"We must show our young people that we are committed to the generations to come. Climate change is a chance for humanity to prevail", concluded the acting minister.

Non official translation