The Australian Government has established an expert advisory group to provide advice on reducing the impacts of climate change on the nation's health.
The Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group will also support implementation of Australia's first National Health and Climate Strategy, launched at COP28 in Dubai last December by Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney.
The strategy is a whole-of-government plan to address the negative effects of climate change on health and wellbeing. It sets out actions to reduce the health system's contribution to climate change and build a high-quality net-zero health system.
With more frequent and extreme climate events, climate change presents a serious health and wellbeing challenge to Australians. The World Health Organization has described climate change as the greatest threat to global health this century. Negative health effects include heat-related sickness and death, injuries and mental health impacts from extreme weather events, respiratory illness due to air pollution, and changes in the spread and risk of infectious diseases.
The advisory group is chaired by Assistant Minister Kearney. Other members include Professor Paul Kelly (Australia's Chief Medical Officer and Head of the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control), health professionals, academic experts, and community representatives (see the full list below).
The advisory group will ensure the views of the health community are fed into the process of developing and implementing the government's climate and health policies.
The advisory group held its first meeting this month and will meet at least 3 times a year. The group has discussed progress on implementing the strategy, and heard that over one-fifth of the key actions have been substantively implemented to date, including:
- joining the World Health Organization's Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health
- investing $5 million in climate and health research through the National Health and Medical Research Council,
- preparing new reports on opportunities to reduce health system greenhouse gas emissions from waste, food, and anaesthetic gases.
Quotes attributable to Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney MP:
"With more frequent and extreme climate events, climate change is a serious challenge to the health of Australians. After a decade of inaction and dysfunction, we are taking decisive measures to protect our health system.
"Labor is taking action now to ensure our health system can respond to these threats. We also making sure we minimise our health system's contribution to climate change.
"Since I launched the National Health and Climate Strategy 6 months ago, we've made outstanding progress. The Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group will help build on this progress.
"We all have a shared goal is to protect all Australians from the severe health risks posed by climate change, and to make the health system as sustainable as possible."
| Name | Title and organisation |
|---|---|
| The Hon Ged Kearney MP (Chair) | Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care |
| Professor Paul Kelly (Deputy Chair) | Chief Medical Officer and Head of interim Australian Centre for Disease Control |
| Professor Lynne Madden | Chair, Multi-College Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Health |
| Professor Jennifer Martin | President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians |
| Professor Tarun Weeramanthri | President, Public Health Association Australia |
| Dr Catherine Pendrey | Chair, Climate and Environmental Medicine Special Interest Group, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners |
| Adjunct Associate Professor Rebecca Haddock | Executive Director of Knowledge Exchange Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association |
| Ms Elizabeth de Somer | CEO, Medicines Australia |
| Mr Jason Kara | CEO, Catholic Health Australia |
| Dr Kate Wylie | Executive Director, Doctors for the Environment Australia |
| Ms Michelle Isles | CEO, Climate and Health Alliance |
| Professor Eugenie Kayak | Professor of Sustainable Healthcare, University of Melbourne |
| Professor Kathryn Bowen | Deputy Director, Melbourne Climate Futures |
| Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis | Director, Healthy Environments and Lives Network |
| Associate Professor Angie Bone | Associate Professor of Practice in Planetary Health, Monash Sustainable Development Institute |
| Professor Hilary Bambrick | Director, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University |
| Professor Alexandra Barratt | Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney |
| Associate Professor Steve Morris | CEO, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia |
| Mr Paul Stewart | CEO, The Lowitja Institute |
| Associate Professor Veronica Matthews | Associate Professor, Centre for Rural Health at the University of Sydney |
| Mr Tom Symondson | CEO, Aged & Community Care Providers Association |
| Ms Jade Guitera | Vice-President External, Australian Medical Students' Association |
| Ms Roslyn Morgan | Environmental Health Officer, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation |
| Professor Tracy Levett-Jones | Lead, Planetary Health for Nursing & Midwifery Research & Education Collaborative |
| Associate Professor Carolyn Hullick | Chief Medical Officer, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care |
| Professor Nick Watts | Director, Centre for Sustainable Medicine, National University of Singapore |
| Ms Doris Whitmore | Interim Chief Executive Officer, Asthma Australia |
