A new Federal Government advisory group has been established to help reduce the impacts of climate change on the nation’s health.
Chaired by Federal Health Minister Ged Kearney, the Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group will support the implementation of Australia’s National Health and Climate Strategy, launched at COP28 in Dubai last December.
Minister Kearney said the strategy was a whole-of-government plan to address the negative effects of climate change on health and wellbeing.
She said it sets out actions to reduce the health system’s contribution to climate change and build a high-quality net-zero health system.
“With more frequent and extreme climate events, climate change presents a serious health and wellbeing challenge to Australians.
“The World Health Organization has described climate change as the greatest threat to global health this century.”
Minister Kearney said negative health effects included heat-related sickness and death, injuries and mental health impacts from extreme weather events, respiratory illness due to air pollution, and changes in the spread and risk of infectious diseases.
She said the advisory group members included Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly, health professionals, academic experts, and community representatives.
“The advisory group will ensure the views of the health community are fed into the process of developing and implementing the government’s climate and health policies.”
Members of the Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group:
- Ged Kearney MP (Chair): Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care.
- Professor Paul Kelly (Deputy Chair): Chief Medical Officer and Head of interim Australian Centre for Disease Control.
- Professor Lynne Madden: Chair, Multi-College Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Health.
- Professor Jennifer Martin: President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
- Professor Tarun Weeramanthri: President, Public Health Association Australia.
- Dr Catherine Pendrey: Chair, Climate and Environmental Medicine Special Interest Group, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
- Adjunct Associate Professor Rebecca Haddock: Executive Director of Knowledge Exchange. Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association.
- Elizabeth de Somer: CEO, Medicines Australia.
- Jason Kara: CEO, Catholic Health Australia.
- Dr Kate Wylie: Executive Director, Doctors for the Environment Australia.
- Michelle Isles: CEO, Climate and Health Alliance.
- Professor Eugenie Kayak: Professor of Sustainable Healthcare, University of Melbourne.
- Professor Kathryn Bowen: Deputy Director, Melbourne Climate Futures.
- Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis: Director, Healthy Environments and Lives Network.
- Associate Professor Angie Bone: Associate Professor of Practice in Planetary Health, Monash Sustainable Development Institute.
- Professor Hilary Bambrick: Director, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University.
- Professor Alexandra Barratt: Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney.
- Associate Professor Steve Morris: CEO, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
- Paul Stewart: CEO, The Lowitja Institute:
- Associate Professor Veronica Matthews: Centre for Rural Health at the University of Sydney.
- Tom Symondson: CEO, Aged & Community Care Providers Association.
- Jade Guitera: Vice-President External, Australian Medical Students’ Association.
- Roslyn Morgan: Environmental Health Officer, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
- Professor Tracy Levett-Jones: Lead, Planetary Health for Nursing & Midwifery Research & Education Collaborative.
- Associate Professor Carolyn Hullick: Chief Medical Officer, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
- Professor Nick Watts: Director, Centre for Sustainable Medicine, National University of Singapore.
- Doris Whitmore: Interim Chief Executive Officer, Asthma Australia
