As we approach a looming energy crisis this winter, I recall a key lesson learnt from managing the pandemic: The need to adopt a dual track approach – responding to immediate needs in a crisis and ensuring essential services continue, and – at the same time - planning and preparing better for future crises.
A similar dual track modality can be applied to the energy crisis, with health a critical element.
The first track is anticipating the immediate wintertime emergency with an emphasis on protecting and saving lives. This includes ensuring an uninterrupted energy supply to keep health and other essential social services functional and protecting the most vulnerable from the health impacts of energy poverty. We must prepare for increased hospital admissions and demand on surgeries, accident and emergency departments and social care services.
The second track, in parallel, is to greatly accelerate the transition towards clean, renewable energy –which means mitigating climate change while simultaneously reducing air pollution, for example, which kills an estimated 7 million people a year globally, some 550,000 in Europe alone.
We commend the European Union for reflecting health in the ‘Green Deal’, and the Western Balkan Prime Ministers for their commitment to the Roadmap for Health and Well-being, where they acknowledge that investments in health breed stability and economic development– with a 7-fold economic return on every Euro invested in non-communicable diseases, for example.
COVID-19 has taught us that while health may not be everything, without health there is nothing.
On behalf of WHO/Europe, I thank you for giving health a prominent place at the table here at the Berlin Process, and beyond.