WHO Report: Closing the Gap in a Generation

28 August 2008: In this report, subtitled “Health equity through action on the social determinants of health,” the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health calls for closing the health gap in a generation and outlines the requirements for developing solutions to the inequities between and within countries.

The Commission recognizes the implications of climate change for the global health system and its impact on the way of life and health of individuals and the planet. It stresses the need to bring the health equity and climate change agendas together and to balance the needs of social and economic development, health equity and the urgency of dealing with climate change. Among its recommendations, the Commission underscores the need to ensure that economic and social policy responses to climate change and other environmental degradation take into account health equity.

It also specifically notes that climate change poses a significant challenge to the current model of urbanization, with the current main greenhouse gas emissions being determined mainly by consumption patterns in cities of the developed world, making tackling climate change and reducing global health inequities interrelated. [The Report] [The Executive Summary]