In a new declaration submitted by the Planetary Health Alliance, several health organisations in Europe, including Karolinska Institutet, are calling to the European Commission for measures to address health problems caused by the increasingly warm climate.
Photo: Private.
The European Commission is currently preparing the “European Climate Resilience Framework”, which will be published at the end of 2026. To influence this work, a large number of organisations operating in different parts of the health sector have produced a declaration calling for action at various levels in six key areas to counter the health effects of, for example, heatwaves.
“When people think about heatwaves, they often think of dehydration or heatstroke. What many people do not realise is that the kidneys are among the first organs to be damaged. Repeated heat stress and dehydration can silently lead to acute kidney injury and, in the long term, impaired kidney function,” says Peter Stenvinkel, senior consultant and professor of nephrology at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology at Karolinska Institutet. He is a world-leading kidney researcher with more than 730 publications, 80,000 citations, and expertise in CKD, ageing, nutrition and planetary health, and is the signatory of the declaration on behalf of Karolinska Institutet.
The declaration calls, among other things, for health, evidence and equality to be explicit objectives in all EU climate-related policy. It also calls for all fossil fuel subsidies to be phased out.
“Europe has heat action plans, but people are still dying. This declaration shows that we must move from plans to action. Preventing heat-related illness is more effective, less expensive and more humane than treating the consequences once the damage has already been done,” says Peter Stenvinkel.
The full declaration from the Planetary Health Alliance can be read here.
