Eröffnungsrede auf der Hochrangigen Tagung zur Halbzeitbilanz des Prozesses Umwelt und Gesundheit in Europa

Thank you Mr Chairman.

Dear directors-general, ministers, deputy ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

I am very pleased to welcome all delegates and guests on behalf of the World Health Organization to this high-level mid-term review of the European Environment and Health Process. 

I wish to warmly thank the Government of Israel, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Health for hosting us in this beautiful city and for your strong political support to the process, including your past membership on the Ministerial Board.

[The excellent musical entertainment you have organized for us is the best way to set our meeting on the right path and in the right mood, while bringing a smile to our faces. It also reminds us of the collective responsibility we bear to protect the health and the environment of future generations.]

I am very pleased to be here today with Mr Marco Keiner, the Director of the Environment Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), who is representing the UNECE Executive Secretary, Mr Christian Friis Bach, who did his utmost to be with us today, but could not make it. UNECE is our long-standing partner in a number of areas and, as you can see, a key partner in this conference as well. 

A warm welcome also to Mr Alexander Nies, from Germany, who is serving as the Chairperson of the European Environment and Health Task Force, and to Professor Dragan Gjorgjev, of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, who will take over the office of the Task Force Chair after this meeting.

I wish to thank you and the members of the Ad-hoc Working Group of the Environment and Health Task Force for your intense work in preparing this event, the editorial board of the mid-term review report for your contributions and the communication working group for delivering a communication plan, which is making headlines around Europe. Just by listening to this impressive list of contributors, I hope you realize how much this is "your event", prepared by you and for you, and feel strong ownership of it.

Before I continue, I suggest that we remind ourselves of what we did and said in Parma in 2010.

[3-minute video of the Parma conference]

RD continues:

Mr Chairman, dear directors-general, excellences, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

We left Parma 5 years ago with the promise to meet again to see where we stand in fulfilling our commitments. Here in Haifa, we will review our progress and set the course for the next ministerial conference. We have a lot to do in the coming 2 days.

First, we can comfortably congratulate ourselves on the good progress achieved on a number of issues.

For example, between 2000 and 2011, we curbed mortality from unintentional and road traffic injuries among children under the age of 14 years by more than 40%. Further great news is that, with the adoption of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2013, we have a powerful policy instrument to protect health from highly toxic mercury, to which children are particularly vulnerable. The total economic benefit of preventing exposure to methylmercury within the European Union is estimated at between €8 billion and €9 billion a year due to an estimated gain of 600 000 IQ points a year! There are many more good stories to tell in the coming session, and the poster exhibition organized outside is an excellent way to show-case your successes and experiences. 

Secondly, we should reflect on the roadblocks that are slowing us down or even threatening to set us off track to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. How can we tolerate the fact that, in this Region, there are 10 deaths a day from diarrhoea due to unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene?

This is clearly not because of a lack of understanding about what needs to be done, nor a lack of policy tools and commitments. How can the Environment and Health Process help? 300 million people live in countries where the use of asbestos has not yet been banned, and, even in the countries that have banned it, many more are still exposed to asbestos. Yet, the policy debate remains open, and, as early as next week, those of you who will be attending the Conferences of the Parties to the Rotterdam, Basel and Stockholm Conventions will discuss, once again, whether asbestos is to be listed among the substances for which importing countries must give their consent for trade. How can the European Environment and Health Process support your efforts to eliminate asbestos-related diseases and reach the target set in Parma? Are we going to forfeit the first of the Parma commitments? 

Thirdly, we should take stock of the new knowledge that has emerged since Parma and use it to prepare better-informed policies. We now know that air pollution is the largest single environmental health risk factor, causing more than 600 000 premature deaths in the WHO European Region in 2012, contributing to the death toll from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancer. In the publication we released yesterday with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it is estimated that the populations of our 53 Member States would be willing to pay 1.4 trillion euros to avoid deaths and diseases caused by air pollution.

These are impressive numbers, which give us a new understanding of the magnitude of the problem. Yet, the policy response is not equally bold. We look with hope to the forthcoming World Health Assembly, which, in 2 weeks, will debate a resolution on air pollution and health. What can be done through the Environment and Health Process to steer action and policy in the right direction, in each of your countries and internationally, to ensure clean air for our people?

Fourthly, we should be candid and frank in thinking about the governance settings of the process and effective solutions to the challenges. For example, did establishment of the Communication and ad-hoc working groups or of the Health in Climate Change working group support the Process in reaching out and the Task Force in doing its work? How do we ensure meaningful direct engagement of senior policy-makers, ministers in particular, in the Environment and Health Process? How can we improve the strategic partnerships, and what new partnerships should be sought? How can we ensure the resources that are needed to give you more support and to prepare the next ministerial conference?

Last but not least, we should look forward and decide on the pathway towards the next ministerial conference and beyond. On the one hand, this means deciding on the most urgent priorities between now and the next ministerial conference: where should our efforts be focused most appropriately and effectively in order to fulfil the Parma promises?

On the other hand, we should shape the preparatory process so that the next conference is informed by a robust reflection on the unprecedented global and trans-boundary environmental and health challenges and on the changed context in which Member States operate in the 21st century.

Since Parma, the persistent economic crisis and shrinking budgets have risked making environment and health perceived as a luxury, secondary to other priorities or, potentially, damaging to economic policy objectives of expanding business, increasing competitiveness and reducing economic inputs. Also, the marked socioeconomic divide is deepening, leading to environmental health inequalities. These challenges can be addressed effectively only if we admit that "business as usual" will deliver just more of the same and that we need a paradigm shift. This recognition will also emphasize the need for the Process to make measurable, visible changes in environment and health issues in Member States and continue to generate evidence and science on priorities.

Since Parma, adoption of Health 2020 and development of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda have provided new policy platforms for promoting an integrated response to the underlying social, economic and environmental determinants of health. The Environment and Health Process must remain firmly anchored in these frameworks if it is to remain relevant and add value for its stakeholders. Equally important is the formation of further strategic partnerships with actors and processes that give synergy and coherence to our action, such as the multilateral environmental agreements that address many environment and health risks factors and the work of the European Union and of the international financial institutions. We have consulted with you on a possible road map to the next stop in the journey, and I very much look forward to tomorrow's discussion, when we will have an opportunity to reflect together on the directions to take.

Thank you for your attention.