Feature article by Bruce Tsai, Kendall Robertson and Susanna Lees Watts. NZMJ Digest Issue 91. Read here. 

Article on the benefits of a sustainable diet and why we need a strong Zero Carbon Bill with quotes from Dr Alexandra Macmillan, OraTaiao Co-convenor. Read here.

Interview here with Co-convenor, Dr Alexandra Macmillan, on the need for well designed climate policy.

Interview with Co-convenor, Dr Alexandra Macmillan, about why healthcare workers are demanding stronger action on climate change. Read more here.

MEDIA RELEASE, 29 August 2019

This morning at Environment Select Committee hearings, five health sector groups representing more than 55,000 health workers, called for health and fairness to be at the heart of a strengthened Zero Carbon Bill.

“We support a Zero Carbon Bill to help us stay within 1.5 degrees of global warming to protect people’s wellbeing from the impacts of climate change. It also needs to be strengthened to take advantage of the huge opportunities of well-designed climate policy for better health and wellbeing. With well-designed climate policy we would expect to see substantial health gains,” says Dr Alexandra Macmillan, Co-convenor, OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council.

Interview here with Dr Alexandra Macmillan about why health professionals strongly support the Zero Carbon Bill.

JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT, 9 August 2019

The New Zealand Climate & Health Council and health promotion charity Doctors for Nutrition strongly support the new Sustainability and the Health Sector guidance announced last week as it will result in a much healthier population.

“People and the planet will both be healthier if we shift towards a plant-based diet, and cut back on meat and dairy, as recommended,” according to Dr Alex Macmillan, Co-convenor of OraTaiao: The NZ Climate and Health Council.

Climate Q&A: will we be less healthy because of climate change? Dr Alexandra Macmillan. The Conversation, 7 August 2019.

The overwhelmingly negative effects of climate change on health are a strong argument for urgent action to reduce our climate pollution. More here.

OraTaiao submission on the Zero Carbon Bill - Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act, 15 July 2019

"We welcome the Bill, which is not only crucial to reducing New Zealand emissions, but is also among our generation’s most important pieces of health legislation. OraTaiao, alongside other experts in climate change and health, strongly believes that tackling climate change is potentially the greatest global health opportunity of the century. Our submission is focused on the potential health gains and the other co-benefits that can result from well-designed strategies to reduce New Zealand’s emissions...

"We have major concerns, however, that the Bill: does not adequately embed health and health equity; does not adequately incorporate the benefits, costs, and risks of climate action; fails to make adequate provision for meeting the government’s obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi; fails to demonstrate true domestic and international leadership on greenhouse gas reduction targets; lacks enforceability mechanisms that are necessary to ensure that greenhouse gas targets are met."

Read the submission here (PDF).