The Climate and Health Alliance along with Koowerup Regional Health Service recently initiated a Climate and Health Clinic - a two day event run as part of the Melbourne Sustainability Festival. With the help of more than 20 fabulous volunteers, the Clinic offered 'climate and health checks' to hundreds of festival-goers, and those who wished to could have their own prescription for 'climate and health'. The prescriptions acted as a checklist to assist people identify actions that they could take...

By Fiona Armstrong December 9th, 2011 In the final week in Durban a sense of frustration is permeating the COP, where aspirations for a global deal remain high, but expectations swing between mildly hopeful and almost absent. The tone of the Australian delegation is one of determined but checked progress, maintaining there will be positive outcomes on some issues while keeping expectations low. Australia continues its dream run in terms of public sentiment here, where many international delegates are under...

By Maya Tickell-Painter In another post, I wrote about why health professionals should care about climate change. Luckily, it seems that I'm not the only one who's thought of this- more than ever before, health professionals are present and engaging with the UN climate talks. During this conference, there have been 6 official side events, two health-related actions, and numerous other informal and peer-to-peer education sessions. But are negotiators giving health the love which health professionals are giving to climate...

This post was written by Dr. Pendo Maro, Senior Climate Advisor for Health Care Without Harm Europe and the Health and Environment Alliance; Pendo will attend COP 17 in Durban. It was first published on the blog of Health Care Without Harm, a charity that promotes health care which does no harm to people or the environment. I was in London on 17 October 2011 attending THE conference on health and security implications of climate change. With over 300 delegates,...

This article was written by Dr Helen Redmond from Doctors for the Environment Australia for Medical Observer on 21st November 2011. COAL is a health hazard and Australia has an addiction to it. Our state and federal governments have not acknowledged the health consequences of mining and combusting coal, although evidence for harm to human health is well documented in the scientific literature. Precious little research has been done in Australia despite coal communities like those in the Upper Hunter...

The announcement this week that agreement has been reached to pass the first significant piece of national climate policy has been a good news story for the government and generated a modest sense of victory among climate action advocates. But among all the relief, enthusiasm and general disbelief that the Australian parliament could actually agree on something so sensible as a committment to reducing emissions, it is useful to remind ourselves why we are doing this, what the end goal...

By Fiona Armstrong In all the to and fro of the current carbon pricing debate here in Australia, one important aspect of the story on climate action is missing. Why are we acting on climate change? Well, because of the evidence that it poses risks to the global economy, to infrastructure, and to our natural environment. All that is true and makes for a compelling case for action. But at its very core “ climate change is a health issue....

Given the hysteria around the current debate on a carbon tax, it seems timely to republish on the CAHA blog an edited version of this article published in Fairfax's National Times last year: No need to be afraid of a tax on carbon. The agreement between The Gillard Government and The Greens that a carbon price is paramount to tackling carbon pollution signalled a restoration of a significant climate policy agenda in Australia. It was well overdue, given the overwhelming...

The Climate and Health Alliance joined representatives of the Australian Conservation Foundation, The Climate Project, Union Climate Connectors and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition in Canberra to lobby for the introduction of a carbon price. Around thirty people visited around 40 MPs and Senators in November 2010, outlining the case for a price on carbon to replace Australia's ageing and high emitting fossil fuelled power generation infrastructure. A price on carbon would create an economic incentive to encourage the development...