In 2023, EFA was actively involved in the development of policies around climate change, with a clear impact on the health of allergy and respiratory patients, besides our active involvement in the EU Air Quality Directives, the EU F-Gases Regulation, and the One Health approach applied to plant health and pollen.
EFA brought the perspective of allergy, asthma and COPD patients to the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA) Civil Society Forum, where EFA urged in two occasions the European Commission to include climate change and climate adaptation as a health threat with a cross-border nature, experienced in Europe during heatwaves, wildfires, and floods. HERA has heard the EFA community and started working with Member States on two more EU-wide threats to health, one of them being including climate change.
Moreover, EFA’s then President, Carla Jones, participated in an engaging live discussion on X (formerly Twitter) on the challenges posed by pollen allergy and the needs of patients living with it. The meeting, which brought together key experts, scientists and policymakers in the field, was organised by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
EFA was selected to join the WHO-led Alliance for Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH), which primarily investigates the climate resilience and sustainability of healthcare systems. Throughout the year, EFA actively participated in three meetings of ATACH.
Finally, EFA attended the final conference of the EU-funded EXHAUSTION project, which examines the effects of climate change, and especially heatwaves and wildfires, on cardiopulmonary health. Throughout the project’s lifetime, researchers have focused on demonstrating the extensive interactive effects of air pollution and heat, and their joint impact on human health. EXHAUSTION brings new evidence on the value of both adaptation and mitigation policies, and the need for improvements in wildfire management and city planning. Sustaining an open dialogue with key research projects such as EXHAUSTION, does not only enable EFA to bring the patient voice within environmental health research, but also further strengthen EFA’s knowledge on key climate-driven issues that loom as serious health threats.
