Simply going by the 2021 Budget, one wouldn’t know our government has declared a climate emergency; rather it was another disappointment in a long string of underwhelming Budgets, said Dr Dermot Coffey, Co-convenor, OraTaiao: NZ Climate and Health Council.

Please read OraTaiao's response to the 2021 Budget.

OraTaiao submission, 2 May 2021

Read full submission here.

Article about OraTaiao and other health professional organisations asking for a public health expert to be appointed to the Climate Change Commission. Read here.

Twelve health professional organisations have written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw asking for public health representation on the Climate Change Commission.

• Letter to Hon James Shaw - March 2021

JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT – OraTaiao, RACP, NZMA, Health Promotion Forum of NZ, 25 March 2021

Health organisations have written to Climate Change Minister James Shaw asking him to appoint a public health expert to the Climate Change Commission to ensure Aotearoa improves health as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Make a submission to the Climate Change Commission!

The Climate Change Commission is consulting on its first package of advice to the Government which will help shape Aotearoa’s climate crisis response. In their current form the Commission’s draft recommendations ignore the important health and equity gains that could be made from the right kind of climate action. They also do not sufficiently recognise te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The Sustainable Healthcare and Climate Health Aotearoa Conference invites experts, researchers, up-and-coming leaders and sustainability champions to submit abstracts for presentation (in person or virtually) at our annual conference in Wellington on 22–23 June 2021. The theme is 'Re-thinking Sustainable Health in Aotearoa'. For more information see here.

Article on new air pollution study showing deaths from burning fossil fuels with comments by OraTaiao Co-convenor, Dr Dermot Coffey, including recommending a “rapidly decarbonising society”. Read here.

Promote the health benefits of climate action and the work of OraTaiao at your workplace by putting up a flyer in your tea room and on notice boards. Just download and print out the flyers below. Choose either A4 size or go for the smaller A5 size. 

• OraTaiao promotional flyer A4 size (PDF) - print out and pin up!
• OraTaiao promotional flyer A5 size (PDF) - print this out on standard A4 paper and cut in half to make A5 size.

Article by Dr Dermot Coffey. NZMJ Digest Issue 99. Read here (PDF).

The following briefing was sent to Ministers and Associate Ministers with portfolios in health, housing, transport, energy, building & construction, environment, agriculture, and climate change. Tackling climate change requires an all of government response.

• Briefing to Incoming Ministers - December 2020

MEDIA STATEMENT, 3 December 2020

Evidence from the latest Lancet Countdown report show that climate change induced shocks such as wildfires and heat waves are claiming lives now and unless urgent action is taken then health impacts will worsen, so it is timely our government has just declared a climate emergency, said Dr Dermot Coffey, Co-convenor, OraTaiao: NZ Climate and Health Council.

People don't need educating on cycleways, just do it. Dr Dermot Coffey. Stuff news, 10 November 2020.

We need to focus on the systemic and structural barriers to climate change actions, and to make use of health expertise in our climate change response. Read here.

Viewpoint by Michael Brenndorfer. Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, Vol 26, No 9, October 2020. Read here (PDF).

MEDIA STATEMENT, 9 October 2020

Following the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) announcement that it will commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2040, NZ health professionals are asking the NZ Government to require emissions reductions in our health sector in Aotearoa NZ.