Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health

Event highlights

16 January 2024

Priorities and commitments for environment and health in the WHO European Region

At the Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, countries of the WHO European Region adopted the Budapest Declaration, which prioritizes urgent, wide-ranging action on health challenges related to climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss and land degradation along with, and in the context of, recovery from COVID-19.

Within the Declaration, the “Roadmap for healthier people, a thriving planet and a sustainable future 2023–2030” guides countries in accelerating the transitions needed towards making communities sustainable. The Roadmap explains why urgent action is needed in a particular area, offers a list of commitments countries can consider, and suggests measures to achieve them.

By adopting the Declaration, countries committed to tackling pollution; ensuring everyone has access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene; integrating nature and biodiversity considerations into policies; and promoting a clean, safe and healthy built environment. Additional commitments target health systems and youth organizations.

The European Environment and Health Process (EHP) Partnerships, a new mechanism for the implementation of commitments, was launched during the Conference. The EHP Partnerships bring together countries and partners with a shared interest in a specific thematic area to work together on joint projects and activities.

The Conference was attended by more than 600 participants, including representatives of environment and health ministries from 43 Member States in the Region, representatives of stakeholders responsible for shaping environment and health policies in the Region (including youth representatives and representatives of subnational and local levels of government), observers and guests.

Event notice

5 - 7 July 2023

The Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health will define the future environment and health priorities and commitments for the WHO European Region, with a focus on addressing the health dimensions of the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. 

The Conference will take into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities for a healthy recovery on the path towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This will be the seventh conference in a series started in 1989 under the framework of the European Environment and Health Process (EHP).

In spite of progress achieved over the past 30 years, more than 1.4 million deaths per year in the Region are still attributable to environmental risk factors, with air pollution being the leading one. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the depth and breadth of systemic failures in preventing, recognizing and addressing the environmental root causes of zoonotic diseases, linking the pandemic to the concomitant triple environmental crisis.

This drives a need to rethink governance, policies and action for health and the environment. We need to create capacities to embrace integrated, transdisciplinary and multisectoral approaches that fully recognize and act upon these interlinkages, forging partnerships to advance action that leaves no one behind. 

Under the patronage of the President of Hungary Ms Katalin Novák, the Conference will:

• catalyse concrete action and collaboration across countries and sectors to address the pressing environmental threats to health in the context of recovery from the pandemic and the energy crisis;
• provide an opportunity to present good practices and share knowledge and experience;
• launch new partnerships addressing major environment and health concerns;
• promote youth engagement in environment and health policy and action; and
• culminate in the adoption of a negotiated ministerial declaration with concrete commitments to accelerate action on:

o addressing the health dimensions of climate change, environmental pollution, land degradation and biodiversity loss; and

o recovering from the pandemic by promoting a healthy and just transition.

The Conference programme features high-level political segments. To facilitate interaction at the political level, it includes a ministerial lunch on 6 July, and receptions hosted by the Government of Hungary and the WHO Regional Director for Europe on 5 and 6 July, respectively. Throughout the Conference, there will also be opportunities to participate in parallel events, an exhibition and site visits.

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