Health and the environment at the heart of climate issues
The 27ᵉ edition of FACTS Report, focuses on the profound links between human health, the environment and climate change. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it explores the health challenges posed by climate disruption, while proposing concrete solutions for anticipating, adapting and taking action.
To meet these challenges, the edition proposes a series of solutions. It emphasizes the “One Health” approach, which sees human, animal and environmental health as interdependent. Strategies such as creating resilient cities, rehabilitating ecosystems or even eco-therapy are explored to improve quality of life and mitigate climate impacts.
Discover:
- The Foreword by Philippe Kourilsky, Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France, Honorary Director General of the Institut Pasteur and Member of the Institut Veolia Foresight Committee
- Introduction by Nicolas Renard, Executive Director of the Veolia Institute
- The decryption by Harvey V. Fineberg, President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and member of the Veolia Institute's Foresight Committee
- The conclusion by Cedric Baecher, Partner at Wavestone
1. Direct threats to human health as a consequence of the climate emergency
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic reminded us of the vulnerability of our health, described by Plato as our “first good”. In revealing our interdependencies and highlighting how every aspect of our existence is linked to others, the pandemic gave us a renewed perspective on the history of a civilization whose development has always been marked by public health calamities. It took this crisis for health to once again become a shared concern. Too long seen as a personal matter, it is now viewed as a collective and public issue, global in nature.
Political scientist and researcher, specialist in climate policies and internationalNand lead author for the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC
-Matthew Gribble: Associate Chief for Research in Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine (OECM) at UCSF,
-Sheri Weiser: Professor of Medicine at UCSF, co-founding Director of the University of California Center for Climate,Health and Equity
Neurobiologist and physiology specialist affiliated with the French Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction, UK Health Security Agency
Director of the French office of the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Emeritus professor of developmental cognitive psychology at Paris 8 University and Research Director at Paragraphe Laboratory
Gestalt therapist, coach, and supervisor
2. Natural ecosystems altered and damaged by climate change: a threat to human health
Humans, animals and ecosystems all share “one health”. One Health is an integrated, unified approach that invites us to thinkabout health in a new way, recognizing the close interactions between the health of humans, animals and ecosystems. At a time when nearly a quarter of deaths and illnesses worldwide are a consequence of poor environmental conditions, it is clearly vital to acknowledge that human health can only flourish if the other two pillars are preserved. We need to protect them so we can safeguard our life on earth.
Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Medicine of the University of California, San Francisco,
and Adjunct Professor of Global Health and Population of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston
Biologist, oceanographer, Vice-President of the Ocean & Climate Platform
and heads the CNRS-hosted Ocean Sustainability Foundation
-Alison Rose, Senior Program Manager, Food for Humanity Initiative, Columbia Climate School
-Rita Colwell, Environmental microbiologist, Distinguished University Professor at University of Maryland
Postdoctoral researcher at the Remote sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases (ReACT) research unit of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and AXA Research Fund fellow
CEO at Environmental Emergency & Security Services
3. The impacts of climate change on societies and organizations: adaptations to protect health
Organizational resilience has become vital in the face of climate change and its effects on human health and the environment. It is defined as “the capacity of a certain organization to maintain a state of dynamic stability, which allows it to continue its operations during and after a major incident or in the presence of a major stress.” To develop this capacity, societies and organizations have to tackle four types of challenges: cognitive, by accepting change; strategic, by imagining new options; political, by channeling resources to tomorrow’s activities, and ideological, by promoting a proactive search for opportunities.
Associate director of ELABE, a research consultancy specializing in communications strategy
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Director of the Sanofi Group
-Chengzhi Peng, Senior Lecturer and Director of Postgraduate Research at Sheffield School of Architecture
Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Australia and AXA Research Fund fellow
Associate Professor in the Architecture Department at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI)
-Julia d’Astorg, Director of the AXA Research Fund
- Anouk Mousset, Project leader for future studies and ecological transformation at the Laboratory for Sustainable Development, Innovation, and Best Practices of the Directorate of French Prison Administration
-Sandrine Oberti, Director of Scientific Valorization – DEST (Veolia Research & Innovation)
-Sandrine Oberti, Director of Scientific Valorization – DEST (Veolia Research & Innovation)
CEO and Founder of SenseGrass