Fireplace Talks: The Heat is On
University of Maastricht Campus Brussels
Climate change poses serious challenges for humans around the world. Global warming is perceived as one of the biggest global health risks of the twentieth century which has a range of effects on human health. Global warming has an impact on vector-borne disease, water-related disease, heat- and cold-related deaths, allergies, air pollution, mental and urban health, malnutrition. The projected increases in more extreme weather, such as more frequent and more intense heatwaves, flooding, droughts, wildfires, and storms due to climate change, also have wide-ranging direct and indirect effects on health.
Although the effect of climate change will be experienced worldwide, its impact will not be evenly distributed among populations. In low-income countries, climate change is believed to further exacerbate existing vulnerability to disease and food security risks, as their populations are, for instance, more reliant on agriculture, more vulnerable to droughts and have a lower adaptive capacity. As climate change can be seen as an amplifier of existing and emerging health risks, it might increase health inequalities and is likely to widen the health gap between rich and poor.
Our speakers
Pim Martens holds the chair ‘Sustainable Development’ at Maastricht University and is a professor extraordinary at Stellenbosch University. He is the (founding) Director of the Maastricht University Graduate School of Sustainability Science (MUST), and has been Director of the International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS) from 2004-2013.
Prof. Martens is project-leader and principal investigator of several projects related to sustainable development and sustainability science in the context of e.g. man-animal relationships, globalisation, environmental change and health. Pim Martens is editorial advisor of the International Journal Ecohealth, and member of several editorial boards (e.g. BioScience, EcoHealth, Sustainability Science, Practice & Policy, Sustainability: The Journal of Record and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability).
Vlatka Matkovic is a Senior Health and Energy Officer at Health and Environmental Alliance (HEAL). She leads the work on implementation of health and environment rules for coal plants in EU and in the Balkans. She coordinates Unmask My City campaign in Balkans and working to raise awareness about health impacts of air pollution from different energy sources. Vlatka is particularly interested in building health allies and engaging medical professionals in a wider health, climate and energy debate.
She is the author of numerous publications including The Unpaid Health Bill in the Western Balkans (HEAL 2016), Boosting Health by Improving Air Quality in the Balkans (HEAL 2017); and various scientific articles The role of Energy Community Treaty in protecting public health (European Public Health Journal, 2015), Climate Change Affects Health Care -Rethinking About Healthy Energy For Sustainability (ENV.net Conference Proceedings, 2016), Energy transition as a challenge for public health (European Journal of Public Health, 2017), Citizens4sciences approach in monitoring air quality and personal exposure to PM2.5 (ENV.net Conference Proceedings, 2017), The role of “healthy energy” in healthcare for health future (EUropean Health Management Association Proceedings, 2017).
Moderator
Christine Neuhold is full Professor of EU Democratic Governance. She is Director of the Research Programme of Politics and Culture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University (UM) and Director of Maastricht University Campus Brussels.
She has carried out commissioned work by institutions such as the European Parliament, the Dutch Lower House and national ministries. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics, the Journal of European Public Policy and the Journal of Legislative Studies. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for European Studies at the University of California (2011), Berkeley and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna and the Centre for European Studies, University of Bonn.