ISGlobal Puts the Spotlight on Environmental Health at the COP22 Climate Change Conference

Between 7 and 18 November, Morocco hosted the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change (COP22), the world’s most important international meeting on climate. ISGlobal participated by introducing participants to the new Mediterranean Health Observatory at a session on “Health Actions for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement” organised by the World Health Organization (WHO).

ISGlobal researcher David Rojas and Professor Abderrahmane Maaroufi, Director of the National Institute of Health Administration in Morocco, explained the role of the new Observatory in identifying and developing environmental health indicators, assessing their quality, analysing the data generated and making recommendations to the relevant authorities on how to mitigate and address the health problems caused by climate change.

“The creation of this Observatory shows the potential for ISGlobal to identify the problems and to manage the measures that can be implemented to mitigate them and help communities to adapt to climate change. The topics that will be studied include extreme temperatures and the health implications of increasing urbanisation as well as air pollution, water quality, vector-borne diseases, and maternal, child and reproductive health” explained David Rojas.

Anna Rosés, Global Development coordinator at ISGlobal, who also attended the meeting, emphasised that the Institute’s participation in COP22 was undoubtedly “a great opportunity to increase awareness of ISGlobal’s work in Morocco, to position ourselves as a major player in the country and the Mediterranean area, and to reaffirm and strengthen our ties with the Moroccan Ministry of Health”, a key partner in the Mediterranean Health Observatory project.

According to Eva López, ISGlobal’s key person in Morocco, the Observatory is “an ambitious and unique regional initiative that will provide the data needed to inform evidence-based health strategies and policies”.