Climate Change Threatens Universal Health Coverage: A Call for a Joint Agenda

Join us for an important conversation at the Harvard Club of New York City, in connection with the United Nations General Assembly, about how climate change threatens the tenents of Universal Health Coverage. We will also celebrate the release of a broader collection of articles on UHC by The BMJ and Harvard Global Health Institute.

Climate change directly threatens the basic tenants of universal health care coverage (UHC). It causes negative health outcomes, health infrastructure disruption and workforce displacement. Given that many countries most vulnerable to climate change are also those with the lowest UHC coverage, the need for a synchronized agenda to optimize UHC while mitigating climate change will be imperative. By engaging policymakers and experts from relevant disciplines and geographic regions, we aim to stimulate a conversation about the interplay between climate change and UHC; the need to address them concurrently and the consequences of not doing so.

Following a keynote and panel conversation, please join the Harvard Global Health Institute and The BMJ for a reception to celebrate the release of a special collection of articles focused on UHC. The collection features underexplored perspectives in UHC such as mental health and climate change; highlights the importance of quality in UHC, and uncovers some of the barriers to fulfilling the promise of health for all via UHC.

Confirmed speakers include:

Kamran Abbasi, Executive Editor, The BMJ

Ashish Jha, Faculty Director, Harvard Global Health Institute

Renee Salas, Affiliated Faculty, Harvard Global Health Institute

Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva