While the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, the accelerating health crisis, induced by the climate emergency, requires our even more urgent attention. No country – much more so for a poor than a rich country – is immune from the health impacts of climate change. People around the world face increasing extremes of heat, food and water insecurity, and changing patterns of infectious and chronic diseases. Unless urgent action is taken, the health impacts of the climate emergency will bring further disruption, threaten lives and livelihoods and compromise the health systems we depend on.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency represent converging crises. At the same time, climate emergency and epidemiological changes share common drivers. It is imperative that these emergencies are addressed in a comprehensive manner, while acknowledging public health needs, inequalities and historic injustices.

Be-cause health will organise its annual international conference on 23 and 24th November 2021, both in in Brussels and online.

This year’s conference will look at the pathways and interrelations through which the climate emergency may impact health outcomes. The annual international conference brings together Belgian and international development and health professionals, NGOs and academic researchers.

We invite interested stakeholders to submit (scientific) abstracts on recent (research) findings, case studies or stories that show how

• their organisations and their partners are impacted by the climate emergency and how they address this in their health activities and programs (day 1); and
• transformation could be enabled especially towards a circular and socially just economic system, that respects the planetary boundaries (day 2).

Deadline to submit is 10 September 2021 – 5pm, Brussels time (UTC+2). Read our call for abstracts, case studies & stories.

Depending on the COVID-19 regulations that apply at the time of the conference, speakers and participants will be able to join the conference physically or online.

COVID-19 made us inventive in looking for ways to meet each other. For a network as Be-cause health, hybrid forms of conferences could enable great opportunities to engage more participation from our partners in low- and middle-income countries and emit less carbon. We will experiment with this hybrid format as a pilot for future conferences.

Interpretation between English and French will be provided.

Source: https://mailchi.mp/0d699b2632f2/annual-conference-climate-emergency-and-health-confrence-annuelle-lurgence-climatique-et-la-sant-1358613?e=401ec961aa