Sharm el-Sheikh – The World Health Organization (WHO) and doctors around the world sounded the alarm at the global climate summit in Egypt and called for the 1.5 degree goal to be met. “Anything else would be a sabotage of our health,” warned WHO director for climate and public health Maria Neira.

The world shouldn’t even think about tearing this target apart. So far, the efforts of States are far from sufficient and threaten to miss their limit. “What we have now is quite dramatic,” Neira said.

With seven million deaths from air pollution, hundreds of thousands of heat-related deaths and hospitals full of the chronically ill with global warming around 1.2 degrees so far, it is against all human understanding to even consider scenarios beyond 1.5 degrees.

You wouldn’t open the wounds of a bleeding patient. Should the 1.5 degree target be broken, Neira warned: “Don’t expect to stay sane.”

His call was backed by doctors, nurses and medical students who died symbolically on the sidelines of the climate summit’s on-the-ground negotiations – among other things from heat shock, liver failure, air pollution, and so on. air or trauma related to natural disasters.

“If 1.5 degrees dies, our patients die too,” warned doctors from the Netherlands, India, Malaysia, South Africa and other countries.

They call for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and joined in the demand for a treaty on the non-proliferation of oil, gas and coal – based on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Treaty on the nuclear non-proliferation).

The WHO also supports this proposal, Neira pointed out. “Someone has to turn off the tap,” she said, referring to ever-increasing emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. © dpa/aerzteblatt.de