World held hostage by reliance on fossil fuels, Christiana Figueres warns – and climate health impacts are ‘mother of all injustices’ | Health

A former UN climate chief has warned that countries are being “held hostage” by their dependence on fossil fuels, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”.

Christiana Figueres, the international climate negotiator who helped implement the 2016 Paris agreement, made the comments as she was announced as co-chair of a conference on Wednesday. Lancet Commission examines how sea level rise is reshaping health, well-being and inequality.

Lancet Commissions are international collaborations that analyze important global health issues and influence policy. This commission will examine legal frameworks that will hold countries accountable for the health damage caused by sea level rise. It will report by September 2027.

Although the timing of the announcement was coincidental – during the US-Israeli war against Iran – Figueres said the fuel crisis was “dramatic evidence” of the global dependence on fossil fuels that has led to geopolitical instability and the health effects that the commission will examine.

Commission comes later Pacific island health ministers called for greater global focus Addressing sea level rise as an environmental issue as well as a health and justice issue.

Rising seas are polluting drinking water, damaging food supplies and forcing entire communities from their homes.

Sea level rise is not uniform and is affected by weather patterns, ocean currents, and changes in gravity as ice sheets melt. Rise larger in oceans furthest from ice sheetsand higher than global averages in the Pacific. This means that island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and Fiji become uninhabitable over decades.

A lot Sea level cities are also under threatIncluding New Orleans in the USA, Cardiff and London in the UK, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

In March, Research published in the international science journal Nature It found that ocean levels were underestimated due to inaccurate modelling. In parts of the global south, including Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific, they may be 100 to 150 cm higher than previously thought.

“We as the climate community are very guilty of explaining things in very esoteric terms, as if climate change is something that is not going to happen right now,” Figueres said.

“So framing these issues in terms of health, in terms of dignity, in terms of livelihoods, in terms of identity and cultural continuity…gives a much better context to the fight to reduce emissions because then we understand that this is really about the human experience on this planet…

“From a health perspective, this is now affecting drinking water, it’s affecting sanitation, it’s affecting food security because of the salinization of all this land along the ocean.

“This is happening right now, it is a health crisis and the mother of all injustices.”

Figueres said the commission will take into account the intergenerational trauma and inequality caused by displacement.

“Can you imagine the pain of being displaced, of having to part with the bones of our ancestors in order to protect the future of children?” he said.

“This is a suffering that is already being experienced in the Pacific islands. It is a suffering that we cannot express in economic terms. The suffering is enormous.”

He said young people “grow up understanding that they are in a world already devastated by climate change.”

“How many of them don’t even want to have children because they are so worried about the conditions they may have to grow up and live in?”

The commission will consider how to hold some of the biggest polluters responsible for irreversible damage inflicted on countries that contribute least to climate change. It will evaluate existing legal tools, identify gaps in protections, and consider new ways to protect health and pursue justice for suffering communities.

A groundbreaking advisory opinion published by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2025 found that countries have a legal obligation to prevent climate damage and that failure to do so could result in them paying compensation and other compensation.

Although not binding, the finding would increase the number of climate lawsuits and lead to groundbreaking claims, Figueres said.

“Even the ICJ’s emergence with a clear opinion is already a very important first step in terms of legal consequences,” he said.

Vanuatu to lead support for UN general assembly resolution in May ICJ opinionIf confirmed, this would help shape how the findings are applied globally.

But UN experts They warned about attempts by some states preventing the resolution from even being considered and increasing resistance to explicit references to fossil fuels and legal liability for climate damage.

Figueres said legally binding agreements are not enough to combat the health damage of the climate crisis, recalling how Canada exited the Kyoto agreement just before facing billions of dollars in fines for failing to meet emissions targets.

“They just sent me a letter and said: ‘Dear executive secretary, Canada is hereby removing itself from the Kyoto protocol.’ “So having a legally binding agreement does not guarantee that any country will comply with the agreement.”

He said he believed change would come more from a combination of legal pressure, scientific evidence and what he called appealing to the “enlightened self-interest” of governments and corporations.

“That’s why it’s important to highlight the consequences of inaction,” Figueres said. “Companies must understand that they must reduce emissions to stay in business. Governments must understand that they must reduce emissions to stabilize their economies and protect their people.”

“I think that enlightened self-interest, based on scientific facts, is a much more effective way to achieve emissions reductions than a legally binding agreement from which everyone can withdraw, as the commission will demonstrate.”