To save tomorrow today.  This has been the mantra chanted and echoed by all at the opening of the high level segment at the COP17 in Durban, and is a mantra to be embraced by anyone concerned about the health impacts of climate change.

President of the COP17 Maite Nkoana-Mashabane from South Africa started the high level segment highlighting that we need to create an environment where we can work together "to save tomorrow today".  

President of South Africa Jacob Zuma stressed that Durban is a decisive moment and that we need to make a decisions here that include "the now and the future". A second period of the Kyoto protocol is critical. He called on developed countries to lead the global efforts to reduce emissions and support developing countries in their mitigation and adaptation efforts.  Zuma called upon delegates to agree to a climate deal that enables generations to come to survive. “We need to save tomorrow today.”

It was coincidental, and quite inspiring, that while Christiana Figueres (UNFCCC) was opening the high level segment of the COP17, the Durban Health Declaration was being read at the South African Pavilion. A very good start to create a climate for health.

The urgency is clear. For the first time a UN Secretary General (UN SG) was present in a Conference of the Parties to call for a climate deal. The UN SG Ban-Ki Moon called parties to consider a second period of the Kyoto Protocol in Durban. Ban-Ki Moon urged striving for a Win-Win-Win: poverty reduction, green growth and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Highlighting this urgency, President of Nauru, one of the Pacific Nations, which could be erased from the planet due to climate change, stressed that our own health is connected to the decisions in Durban.

PHI’s Center for Public Health and Climate Change and many other groups from the US and all over the world have joined forces to support the efforts to ensure that the health, nutrition, gender and humanitarian assistance needs of communities are properly addresses in the negotiations in Durban. 

It is time for the US to commit to an emission target in Durban that protects our health today and ensures the survival of future generations and our planet tomorrow. 

Opening Plenary Session of the Conference of the Parties 17, Joint High Level Meeting.

DURBAN - Rapid transit and safe cycling/walking networks are good for both health and climate – and climate experts should consider more systematically how these strategies can reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, one of the world's major contributors to climate change, says a new WHO report.

The new report, Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation - Transport sector was released 6 December, 2011 during the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-17).  

The report reviewed over 300 studies on health outcomes from different types of land transport systems to identify those mitigation measures most closely associated with specific health co-benefits or risks.

The review is the latest product of WHO's Health in the Green Economy initiative, which is considering available evidence on health impacts from climate mitigation strategies for key economic sectors, as reviewed by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Climate Change, 2007).

The new WHO report was launched at an official COP-17 Side Event on "Health and Development in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation," convened by the Government of South Africa, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and WHO. The report was also the focus of a press briefing, involving high-level officials from South Africa's Department of Health and Department of Transport, as well as WHO. 

The IPCC's global assessment of mitigation options for the transport sector places the greatest emphasis on the mitigation potential of improving carbon efficiencies for private vehicles and fuels.

In contrast, the WHO review found a stronger, and more positive, association with health benefits from rapid transit and dedicated walking/cycling systems – measures which are given less emphasis by the IPCC, which did not consider health issues.

"We have looked at the IPCC assessment through the lens of public health and come up with quite a different reading," said Dr Carlos Dora of WHO's Department of Public Health and Environment, in the briefing to journalists.

"Public/rapid transport and safe cycling and walking are the prototype of a transport system that is good for health; it so happens that these are good for climate too."

A large and growing body of literature finds such systems are strongly associated with more healthy physical activity, lower urban air pollution risks, and lower rates of traffic injury among transit users and pedestrians and cyclists on dedicated networks, said Dora, citing findings in the report.

Land use systems that emphasize more compact cities, and mixed use development of commercial and residential areas, along with amenities for walking and cycling, also are strongly associated with better health as well as greater health equity because they allow groups such as children, women, older people, disabled, and those without cars to move around more safely and easily.

While there are large differences in the transport systems of rich and poor nations which need to be recognized, with affluent countries, as well as many emerging economies increasingly dependent on the automobile, while people in very low income countries have trouble getting access to any motorized transport at all, the report identifies what could be some fundamental "win-win" principles for health, transport and climate, Dora said.  

That's because high-quality transit, walking and cycling networks can facilitate better access to motorized transport among poorer groups, as well as physical activity in more sedentary, urban populations. When combined with more compact land use, these may also wind up being very cost-effective climate mitigation measures in the longer term.

"So if you want to reduce climate change and do something for health, employ locally and produce results you can measure, then you can go into good quality cycling, walking and public transport/rapid transit," Dora said.

Download the full report.