We face a pivotal moment in our relationship with the planet we call home. In the past week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that many of the impacts of global warming are irreversible, with only a brief window of time to avoid the worst of them. We are already experiencing the impact of climate change on human health, with a rise in chronic conditions such as respiratory illnesses and cancers. The World Health Organization estimates that 8 million deaths occur every year as a result of air pollution. Furthermore, the healthcare sector as a whole is estimated to result in over 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so everyone involved in the delivery of care has a role to play in reducing emissions — for the sake of population and planetary health. Cities, which create more than 70 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions globally, offer an opportunity for concerted action on decarbonization — working across healthcare delivery, transport, housing, urban planning and other sectors. Currently, 54 percent of all people live in cities, but this is projected to rise to 68 percent by 2050. So, building a sustainable future depends on ensuring that we create urban environments that can mitigate and address the impacts of rising emissions. Building a sustainable future depends on the creation of urban environments that can mitigate and address the impacts of rising emissions. Pelin Incesu On Friday, AstraZeneca will take this message to Expo 2020 in Dubai, where we will host a roundtable discussion with global health and environmental leaders and experts at the Swedish pavilion, known as “The Forest.” We will be discussing how to accelerate net-zero, patient-centric healthcare with a focus on urban areas. The event will bring together representatives from the WHO, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition and government officials from Egypt and the UAE. We are excited to be working with the hosts of the next two major global climate change conferences — Egypt (COP27) and the UAE (COP28) — both of which committed to developing climate-resilient health systems alongside 48 other countries at COP26. Egypt and the UAE have also recently joined the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience, a major public-private academic partnership established by the London School of Economics and AstraZeneca with support from the World Economic Forum. It aims to strengthen healthcare systems in the face of external shocks, such as disease outbreaks, as well as the increasing burden from chronic diseases. AstraZeneca is committed to supporting these efforts through major public-private partnerships like the PHSSR, as well as through local sustainability initiatives such as the Young Health Program in Egypt. Launched in 2021, this initiative builds awareness among young people of environmental impacts on health and encourages them to adopt healthy behaviors to avoid non-communicable diseases. Our CEO Pascal Soriot is also championing the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Taskforce, a private-public collaboration that aims to accelerate the delivery of net-zero health systems around the world. As we look to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh this November, we are reminded of the urgency to put in place lasting measures that decrease the carbon footprint of our health systems, while ensuring focus on patient outcomes and impact to society. Pelin Incesu is AstraZeneca’s area vice president for the Middle East and Africa. Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view