In 2018, the heads of the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Environment and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched a new global coalition on health, environment and climate change (HECCC). One of its overall goals is to reduce the annual 12.6 million deaths caused by environmental risks, with a special focus on air pollution.
Many pollutants which damage health also harm the environment and contribute to climate change. These include black carbon from diesel engines, cooking stoves and waste incineration, and ground level ozone, which are harmful but are short lived in the atmosphere.
The coalition supported the organization of the 1stGlobal Conference on Air Pollution and Health, which took take place in Geneva in November 2018 and continues to strengthen actions targeting health protection from environment and climate change-related risks among its members.
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