A team from the University of California Center for Climate, Health and Equity (CCHE) attended the first week of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) as observers representing UC and health communities.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted the conference, which took place Nov. 30 through Dec. 12 in Dubai. This was the first time that health considerations were incorporated into the formal agenda. In his COP28 remarks, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, shared, “Undoubtedly, health stands as the most compelling reason for taking climate action.”
To help the UC community better understand the critical and sometimes nuanced developments taking place in Dubai, CCHE’s Founding Co-Director Arianne Teherani, Ph.D.; Managing Director Sapna Thottathil, Ph.D.; and Associate Director of Strategy and Communications Jennifer Monroe Zakaras, MPH, set up a blog site, featuring daily posts with detailed descriptions of what they learned and their perspectives of the conversations that were taking place.
They also shared insights in a panel they cohosted with the University of Arizona and international academic partners from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania, the University of Basilicata and Euro-Mediterranean Center of Climate Change in Italy, and the Observer Research Foundation in India.
Read their perspectives from Dubai
And, to learn more about what health advocates hoped to achieve leading up to the conference, read the UC Newsroom story.