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The Soapbox: Human health is at the mercy of fossil fuels

‘Climate change impacts human health in a variety of ways. It threatens the essential ingredients of good health: clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter. All of these components are being threatened right now and worsening for much of the world’

As an observer at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, I was disappointed that the first year that Canada ever hosted a pavilion at a Conference of the Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, our country gave a platform to the oil and gas industry. 

As well, Canada was reportedly the only country in the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) and G20 to have brought delegates from the fossil fuel sector. That was embarrassing. 

On Nov. 10, civil society organizations sent an open letter to Canada's Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to kick the polluters out of the Canadian Pavilion. When questioned about the presence of fossil fuel companies in the Canadian pavilion, Guilbeault was not bothered by the oil and gas presence at COP 27 despite the fact we were all at a UN conference to cut greenhouse gases. 

The United Nations goal is to cut GHG emissions by almost half by the end of this decade and we are not on track. 

On Nov. 15, a Canadian Pavilion stage included the Canadian Ambassador for Climate Change, Catherine Stewart, on a panel with Cenovus and Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage. Stewart's presence gave validity to a misleading narrative spread by Savage, who went to COP27 specifically to protect the fossil fuel industry

The panellists bragged about the reductions in methane release from the oil industry the same week two separate reports from Environment Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation reported methane measurements found from Canada's oil patch were grossly underestimated. Overall, their narrative supported the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. Yet, both the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that developing any new oil and gas fields would prevent the world from limiting global warming to 1.5°C or create stranded assets.

In the audience for the panel with Stewart and Savage were concerned youth, including my own daughter, Sophia Mathur, Indigenous people of Canada and international civil society members from the African continent. 

The youth wanted to ask a question. Their voices were silenced as the panel refused to answer questions on camera and Alberta's environment minister briskly walked out without taking a single question. 

In a democracy, one would reasonably expect questions from the audience at the end of panel discussion at UN events in your own country's pavilion. So it should not be surprising that our colleagues from Africa were dismayed by what they observed. They asked us, "Why weren't you allowed to ask a question in your own pavilion?" 

They learned first hand how a petro state behaves in the global North. Unfortunately, they suffer first hand from the petro states in the global North.

This is particularly disappointing for me as a physician who went to COP27 with multiple groups including CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) looking to address human health and climate change. 

Climate change is the greatest threat to human health this century. Climate change impacts human health in a variety of ways. 

It threatens the essential ingredients of good health: clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter. All of these components are being threatened right now and worsening for much of the world. We all see the catastrophes on the news, but we may forget that nine out of ten people worldwide inhale poor air quality according to the WHO. 

Floods, droughts and climate catastrophes leave land degradation and food and water supply issues long after the news cameras leave the climate story. 

Let's be clear: The biggest contributor to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels and human health is at the mercy of fossil fuels. 

Given the fossil fuel industry presence at COP 27, it should come as no surprise the COP27 outcome didn’t mention oil and gas. 

CAPE, the WHO and multitudes of major health agencies and cities support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which proposes to stop the expansion of fossil fuel exploitation and manage a transition away from coal, oil and gas to clean energy. 

I encourage Health Science North (HSN)  and the City of Greater Sudbury to add their names to this treaty and the Canadian government to commit to protecting global health by supporting a co-ordinated global phaseout of fossil fuels. 

Dr. Sanjiv Mathur is a member of the medical staff at Health Sciences North, vice-president of medical affairs, and past president of the Sudbury and District Medical Society. Along with his partner, Cathy Orlando, and daughter, Sophia Mathur, he was an observer at the COP 26 and COP 27 climate change conferences.


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