RACGP stands up for climate action

The health impact of climate change is on the agenda in the nation’s capital this week, as healthcare professionals from across Australia share their views at a Parliamentary hearing.
 
The hearing will help shape the proposed Duty of Care Bill, which is calling for strict regulation on all climate-related projects.
 
Introduced by Independent ACT Senator David Pocock, the legislation would require government to consider the wellbeing of young people and future generations when making decisions that facilitate or fund projects that could significantly increase greenhouse emissions.
 
RACGP Specific Interests Climate and Environmental Medicine Chair Dr Catherine Pendrey is representing the college at the hearing and said it is Australia’s youngest generation who are now most at risk.
 
‘We need to take serious action on climate change to limit the harm to children,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘The RACGP is obviously committed to protecting and preserving child health and wellbeing, and climate change is an urgent public health emergency.
 
‘If nothing’s done now to act on climate change, the implications for child health, and all of Australia’s health, could be potentially very serious.’
 
Dr Pendrey will be joined in her session by representatives from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the Australian Medical Association.
 
Last year, the RACGP officially backed the Bill, with GPs often on the frontline of a climate crisis.
 
This has been more apparent than ever this year, with bushfires engulfing towns and severe flooding inundating large parts of North Queensland, while Carnarvon in Western Australia last week recorded the hottest temperature anywhere in the world so far in 2024, at 49.9° C.
 
If it passes, the Bill will require lawmakers to ditch the exploration or extraction of coal, oil, or natural gas if the decision poses a material risk of harm to the health and wellbeing of children.
 
The calls for change come at a time when new fossil fuels projects, which will result in substantial increases to greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate change, are still being developed.
 
Dr Pendrey said GPs are already seeing the impacts of climate change in their practices across the nation.
 
‘We’ve had yet another summer of dangerous extreme heatwaves, bushfires, floods and storms,’ she said.
 
‘GPs have been on the frontline in responding to disaster management, keeping vulnerable patients safe during heat waves, supporting the mental health for farmers experiencing drought, and counselling children who have experienced extreme weather events.
 
‘These are things that GPs are saying more and more every day across Australia and that I’ve seen as well in my practice.’
 
And for Dr Pendrey, her calls for change are more personal than ever – currently heavily pregnant, she said it is her own child’s future she is fighting for. 
 
‘This is a concern at the centre of what we do as GPs, and for me it’s a particularly poignant time to be speaking to the Senate about the importance of this issue,’ she said.
 
‘As a GP, child health is always at the centre of what we do, but absolutely for me, at 38 weeks pregnant, the future of our children in respect to climate change is front of mind.
 
‘These impacts are only increasing as climate change accelerates, and not taking action to curb fossil fuel emissions now would be downright dangerous.’
 
Other parties attending the public hearing include the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Human Rights Law Centre, Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds, and Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley.
 
The Environment and Communications Legislation Committee is due to hand down its report on the Bill on 1 March.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

climate change environmental medicine