Recently renewed EU interest in the environmental side of One Health
Ecology has been a well acknowledged pillar of One Health since the very beginning, when the concept "One Health, One World" was first defined (here the original symposium website where it all happened). Still, the environmental side of One Health, and I use the terms environment/ecology interchangeably, has always been somehow overlooked, especially in Europe.
Recently the COVID-19 crisis highlighted just how important it is to consider the health of the environment if one wants to protect the health of the humans.
Now I will not go through the EU One Health policy initiatives, I would just like to give you a couple of very recent examples indicating a renewed EU interest and commitment to biodiversity, and the intention of the EU of being an example to follow.
On January the 11th 2021 French president Emmanuel Macron hosted the One Planet Summit, a global event which focused on the importance to protect biodiversity, also in order to prevent future pandemics.
The most impressive (and rather ambitious) achievement of the Summit, I would say, is that 50 countries backed the so called “30-30” initiative, which aims to protect 30% of the planet by 2030.
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| The One Planet Summit 2021. Credit: spiegel.de |
Importantly, during the Summit the PREZODE initiative (PREventing ZOonotic Diseases Emergence) was launched by France. The aim of PREZODE is to “to keep the risk of emerging zoonoses and pandemics in check […] in line with the One Health concept”. It also considers the more social side, as PREZODE will “build the right socio-ecosystems that are resilient and reduce the risk of emerging zoonoses while strengthening biodiversity and combating poverty and food insecurity”. Although the initiative is clearly international in scope, policy frameworks will be the recent EU ones: the Farm2Fork strategy, the Biodiversity strategy (the European Green Deal in general), as well as the upcoming European Health Union.
PREZODE is an initiative in line with the creation of the One-Health High-Level Expert Council announced at the Paris Peace Forum, in November 2020, in the frame of the Alliance for Multilateralism, launched – again – by France and Germany.
This truly highlights the EU interest in biodiversity (loss) and in the link biodiversity-pandemics. In fact, EC president Ursula von der Leyen delivered a speech at the One Planet Summit, which is worth quoting “I believe 2021 will be the year when the world turns over a new leaf for our planet”, then adding “we need to work together for our 'One Health'. This is why we will prioritise research on 'One Health' across Horizon Europe”. Similar remarks were echoed by European Council President Charles Michel.
The same Charles Michel who proposed, during the Special Session of the UN General Assembly, an international treaty on pandemics within the framework of the WHO. “President Michel reaffirmed that the WHO is the cornerstone of international cooperation against pandemics”. Tedros Ghebreyesus, president of the WHO, welcomed the treaty at the 148th WHO Executive Board.
| Charles Michel proposing the international treaty on pandemics. Credit: newsroom.consilium.europa.eu |
It is then clear that the EU aims at being the guiding beacon when it comes to preventing and managing pandemics, always in line with the One Health approach.
So just in the last couple of months we have seen international treaties and global summits, all initiatives initiated by the EU, indicative not just of the importance of considering environmental health (including biodiversity) when tackling pandemics, but also of the EU commitment in this field.
It seems that environment, the neglected component of the One Health triad, is finally getting the attention it deserves. Sure, this is mostly due to the COVID-19 crisis, but it looks like the EU might have just grasped the importance of acknowledging it in its policies. Hopefully this realisation will outlive the pandemic.