The tragic story of British schoolgirl Ella Kissi-Debrah, who died from an asthma attack caused by pollution, is being told at COP27 to show how climate change kills.
More than 90% of people breathe air that exceeds World Health Organisation pollution limits, causing seven million premature deaths a year.
Dr Maria Neira, WHO director of public health and environment, said the climate crisis and health were “intimately connected”.
She said: “The price of not taking decisions to fight climate change is paid by our lungs.”
Nine-year-old Ella, who died in 2013, became the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on their death certificate. Nitrogen dioxide emissions where Ella lived in south London exceeded both EU and national legal limits.
Her mother Rosamund, who is now fighting to make clean air a human right under “Ella’s Law”, said: “Every minute, a child dies from air pollution, but they don’t have a voice.
“I hope Ella is a voice for them.”
Ella’s story is also being told to the COP27 summit in Egypt to highlight how communities of colour can be worst affected by pollution in congested areas.
Rosamund said: “Not everyone can afford to live in the countryside. People have to live somewhere.”
Dr Neira said: “I think health will be the final motivation that has been missing from the 26 previous Cops. I don’t see what else can be.”
Omnia El Omrani, a youth envoy for COP27 and a doctor in Cairo, told how her patients suffer from air pollution and increasing heat.
She said: “We see first-hand that climate change is not just an environmental problem, but a health problem.”
Last week in Delhi, India, schools closed because of the city’s toxic air.
But the COP27 summit has been branded a “fossil fuel industry trade show” after it was revealed 600 delegates had links to fossil fuels.
It is an increase of 25% from COP26 in Glasgow and more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.
Rachel Rose Jackson, from campaign group Corporate Accountability, said: “We’re on a carousel of madness here, rather than climate action. The fossil fuel industry, their agenda, it’s deadly.
Their motivation is profit and greed. They’re not serious about climate action. They never have been and they never will.” Researchers also warned that the dash for gas after the Ukraine invasion could hit efforts to meet the world’s 1.5C climate change target.
A report published by the Climate Action Tracker group found greater use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is putting the Paris Agreement’s goal at risk.
Analysis by the Global Carbon Project shows that this year carbon emissions rose by 1% compared with 2021 and are at the highest level ever.
And the CICERO Center for International Climate Research found global fossil CO2 emissions are more than 5% higher than in 2015, the year of the Paris Agreement.”
