Members of the European Environmental Health Task Force (EHTF) will attend its 14th meeting, hosted by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Utrecht. The two-day event will review progress since the 7th Environmental Health Ministerial Meeting, held in Budapest, Hungary, in 2023. At the Ministerial Meeting, countries adopted the Budapest Declaration, which prioritizes urgent and far-reaching action on health challenges linked to climate change, environmental pollution and biodiversity loss in the context of, and in parallel with, the recovery from COVID-19.
Within the Budapest Declaration, the Roadmap for Healthier People, Prosperous Planet and a Sustainable Future 2023-2030 provides guidance for countries to accelerate the transition needed to make communities sustainable. The Roadmap explains why urgent action is needed in certain areas, provides a list of commitments that countries can consider, and proposes measures to achieve them.
Overall Coverage
This meeting is very important because:
Provide a platform to evaluate progress in the implementation of the Budapest Declaration and its Roadmap commitments; Outline the activities and key milestones to be achieved by the European Environmental Health Process (EHP) in implementing the Budapest Declaration commitments in the 2024-2025 biennium and beyond; Evaluate the work of the EHP Partnership and agree on future work; Elect two new members to the EHTF Secretariat from the environment and health sectors; Give the floor to representatives of youth organisations to discuss progress in the implementation of the Budapest Youth Declaration.
Expected outcomes
Expected outcomes from the conference include:
agreement on the EHTF’s two-year work programme, selection of themes for the upcoming Bonn Dialogue on Environment and Health, adoption of the EHP Partnership’s updated mandate rules, launching new EHP Partnerships and adoption of the EHTF’s updated Rules of Procedure.
background
The EHTF is the international body leading the implementation and monitoring of the EHP, the first-of-its-kind process to eliminate the most significant environmental threats to human health in the WHO European Region. It serves as an instrument for Member States to provide policy guidance in the field of environment and health in the Region.
The EHTF is comprised of key actors from all Member States in the region, as well as representatives of WHO and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations that are recognized as stakeholders in the EHP.
The EHTF meets annually on the sidelines of ministerial meetings on environment and health.
