Background
The WHO recognises climate change as the biggest health threat facing humanity; it has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health. The World Health Organization’s primary role is to direct and coordinate international health through six core functions, one of which is “articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options.” In furtherance of this mandate, WHO’s Health Ethics and Governance (HEG) Unit (the Secretariat) has established a new and dedicated work stream on climate change, health, and ethics. Through this work, WHO is committed to working with Member States, UN and other international agencies and the wider global health and research community to deliver a range of supporting tools and materials to help navigate ethical issues across the health (and health research) and climate change field and embed them effectively in relevant policies.
Objectives and Function
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO, the AG shall have the following functions:
- To provide advice on the identification of stakeholders in the field of health and climate change, including appropriate engagement strategies, to ensure an inclusive engagement process; to help in considerations of the rights and responsibilities of different stakeholders in ethical decision-making;
- To advise the Secretariat on the development of evidence gathering methodologies, with particular reference to a series of case studies designed to identify the practical ethical challenges arising for health and research stakeholders responding to climate change;
- To contribute with expert inputs into drafts of supporting tools/frameworks and/or guidance developed to support the successful inclusion of ethical considerations in policy and decision making in climate change and health;
- To review and make recommendations to the Secretariat on the final tools/frameworks and/or guidance, including on any proposed dissemination strategies.
Composition
Following a call for interests, WHO has appointed the 13 members of the TAG-Ethics & Climate Health, who serve in their personal capacities to represent the broad range of disciplines relevant to genomics including but not limited to expertise on cancer, other non-communicable and congenital diseases, human genomic variation, pharmacogenomics, implementation of genome-based technologies into clinical practice, ethics and other relevant social science domains related to human genomics.
In the selection of the TAG members, consideration was given to attaining an adequate distribution of technical expertise, geographical representation and gender balance.
Members of the TAG-Ethics & Climate Health have been appointed to serve for a period of two years.
Their appointment may be terminated at any time by WHO if WHO’s interest so requires or, as otherwise specified in these terms of reference or letters of appointment. Where a member’s appointment is terminated, WHO may decide to appoint a replacement member.
List of members
Wael Al-Delaimy – Professor of Public Health at the University of California Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, USA
John Coggon – Professor of Law in the Centre for Health, Law, and Society at the University of Bristol Law School, United Kingdom
Ramon Lorenzo Luis R. Guinto – Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Public Health and Inaugural Director of the Planetary and Global Health Program of the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine, Philippines
John S. Ji- Associate Professor at the Tsinghua University Vanke School of Public Health, Beijing, China
Tamara Lucas – fromerly an Executive Editor at The Lancet, leading multidisciplinary Lancet Commissions and projects in global health
Hiroaki Matsuura – Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Professor of Health Economics and Demography at Shoin University, Japan
Gautam Menon – Head of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability, and Professor, Ashoka University, Sonipat, India
Adetoun Mustapha – Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Lead City University, Adjunct Researcher at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Nigeria.
K. Srinath Reddy – Founder and past President of the Public Health Foundation (PHFI) Honorary Distinguished Professor of PHFI, India
Nicole Redvers, – Member of the Denı́nu Kų́ę́ First Nation (Northwest Territories) Associate Professor, Western Research Chair Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, Canada
Matilde Rusticucci – Professor at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Principal researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Argentina
Verina Wild – Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of the Institute for Ethics and History of Health in Society at the University of Augsburg, Germany
Caradee Wright – Chief Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council , Adjunct Professor at the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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