Overview

WHO fact sheet with key message on climate change and health for finance ministers: you can increase economic efficiency, increase revenue, improve health and address climate change by considering health issues when developing climate policy.

Why should finance ministers care about the impacts of climate change? 

1. Failure to include health in energy and climate policy leads to economically inefficient decisions
2. Countries can remove these subsidies by placing a price on carbon, which is in their own national interest.
3. Removing energy subsidies would lead to very large health and environmental gains.
4. Placing a nationally appropriate carbon price would generate an important source of revenue that could be reinvested in health and other socially beneficial investments.
5. Nations at different levels of development have reinvested energy subsidies in health and other socially beneficial investments.

What can finance ministers do to help?

1. Work with health experts to assess the health impacts of different energy sources.
2. Consider placing a price on carbon that maximizes overall benefits to populations.
3. Design transitional measures to safeguard the welfare of poorer populations.
4. Engage the health community to support the case for lower prices for cleaner energy, and higher prices for polluting sources.

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