Bernard Jomier s’est exprimé le vendredi 4 décembre 2015 devant l’Association médicale mondiale sur le rôle des villes en matière de santé environnementale.

Si 70% des émissions de gaz à effet de serre sont le fait des villes, selon les estimations de la Banque mondiale, les cités comme Paris renferment aussi une partie des solutions et doivent s’engager résolument dans la mise en place de politiques concrètes pour mieux prendre en compte les liens entre climat, santé et environnement.

Intervention de Bernard Jomier en anglais:

«Good morning to you all,

Thank you very much for your invitation and the opportunity to talk about health, climate change and environment which are at the heart of my action, under the authority of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

The last three weeks have been extremely difficult due to the tragic events of Friday the 13^th of November. Difficult for our city, its inhabitants, difficult also for its medical community. Our immediate actions and our thoughts had to be focused on these tragic emergencies. It would have been easy to forget other issues we are facing, sometimes very complex, almost “invisible” in our everyday life, and yet with global consequences, that will last for decades at least. The links between climate, environment and health and what we can do about them, both cities and health professionals, are of course among them.

According to the World Bank, cities are responsible for 70% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. This is enough to understand the role cities have to play today.

As institutions and as communities, they have competencies and tools and they work on public policies that are directly connected to these issues: urban planning, housing, health, transports, education, public spaces… Even what is part of the problem is often part of the solutions. Urban density is usually seen as a challenge difficult to deal with, as it is; but it also brings us services and amenities like hospitals, schools, research labs… which are essential, in their own way, in order to fight climate change and environmental crisis and mitigate their impacts. Most of all, cities have skills and people that can be easily and massively mobilized: political leaders, experts, but also community activists and of course citizens. The mere idea of health in all policies requires that all these actors talk to each other and work with each other to be successful.

Paris is determined to work in that way on its territory and beyond. As we speak Mayors of the world are gathering at the City Hall of Paris where they are welcomed by Anne Hidalgo and former New-York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. But Paris did not wait until today to study, plan and strategize its own actions, for obvious matters.

We have been working for almost a year to define what will be the first comprehensive Environmental health plan ever written, with the reduction of health inequalities particularly at aim; a plan that is due to be adopted in ten days by The Council of Paris. This plan will address public health issues that have been identified for a long time already, and others that were identified much more recently: air pollution, allergies, saturnism and asbestos for example, but also noise, indoor environment quality, chemical substances like endocrine disruptors and carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic (CMR) substances – or the invasion of new species like tiger mosquitoes that have been spotted on several occasions, recently, in Paris. And all these factors will now be taken into account in the city’s decisions. Health will no longer be an adjustment variable, as it is too often, but a cornerstone in each one of our policies.

As Deputy Mayor responsible for health but also as a Doctor, I cannot stop talking without a word on what is actually your main topic today, which is the role not of the cities but of the health professionals in these matters. Obviously I consider this role to be an essential part of what we will be able to achieve. Doctors have their patients’ trust and they provide them with the best treatments they can think of, but we have to go further. We must know our patients’ neighborhood, their stories, their vulnerabilities, not only to cure them but to prevent as much diseases as possible. Patients are different, not only because people are different but also because of the conditions they live in. We really have to understand that the best we can.

I will stop here, but not without thanking the World Medical Association again, and of course the Medical Council. This kind of events is extremely valuable for all of us in order to deepen our understanding of challenges that we all share – not at the same scale, though, as the COP21 Summit also reminds us. Countries have difficulties far more important than ours. But it is only with this kind of exchange on experiences and good practices – and of course with the action of the WHO that will bring us together tomorrow again – that global solidarity will eventually prevail.»