Generali, official COP21 partner, stresses the links between climate and health throughout the summit.
“In its capacity as an insurance company, Generali has a wide-ranging concern for climate change (cyclones, storms, precipitation, droughts and heat waves, etc.).The damage to the environment will continue to grow while the impacts on health will be significant. We nevertheless have powerful levers at our disposal for supporting attenuation and adaptation policies regarding climate change, both in terms of orienting our asset management policies and encouraging more responsible behaviour by our customers. That is the reason for our commitment as an official partner to COP21” explains Hélène N’Diaye, Technical Risks Director, Generali, France.
Need to act: 2015 is the hottest year ever recorded
The most recent data presented by Vincent Peuch, Director of the Copernicus “Atmosphere” Service at the European Centre for Medium Term Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) during the talk organised by Generali at the Bourget shows that:
- The average temperature collected over the past 12 months (from November 2014 to October 2015) has been the hottest recorded so far, with 0.38°C over the annual average calculated for the period 1981-2010
- World temperature in October 2015 was 0.64°C, higher than that recorded for the average of months over the period 1981-2010
- Over a century, average global temperature has increased by approximately 1 °C
- 2015 will probably be the hottest recorded year since the pre-industrial age
What will be the impact on our health?
Our climate has a powerful influence on emerging and spreading of infectious diseases.
Global climate change causes an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme events (such as excessive rains, droughts and heat waves) resulting in the emergence of two types of infectious diseases:
- Bacterial diseases carried by water such as cholera or parasites such as blood flukes or fasciola (a chronic illness caused by parasitic worms) or even by protozoa such as amoebiasis
- Vector or infectious diseases such as chikungunya, malaria, and dengue (In 50 years, the number of cases of dengue fever has multiplied by 30 according to the WHO)
Cases of dengue and chikungunya have been registered in Italy in 2007 while the tiger mosquito has reached areas of Southern Europe (Italy and the South of France) requiring surveillance and sensitization of the population.
The 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), was held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015. The conference represents a key milestone in the international talks on climate change as it aimed at devising a new agreement on climate change, applicable to all, to keep global warming below 2°C.
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