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Ban calls for unified strategies on health, environment, food and energy

Ban calls for unified strategies on health, environment, food and energy

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant´s 4th block in the Ukraine.
Health, environment, food and energy policies can no longer be separated, but must be approached together in a manner bringing about real benefits in all four areas, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

“We have done this successfully in the architecture of new cities,” Mr. Ban told the 18th International Conference on Health and Environment, which is meeting in New York to mark 23 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.

“We should do the same as we tackle the inter-related challenges of climate change, public health, food security and growing energy demand,” he said.

The 1986 Chernobyl tragedy, he said, showed the strong relationship between energy policy and health imposing what the Secretary-General called “a terrible long-term health burden.”

In the three countries surrounding the incident’s epicentre, more than 5,000 additional thyroid cancers in children can be attributed to radiation from Chernobyl, he noted.

Nuclear power is again in the headlines, he noted, with the threat of climate change and the search for low-carbon energy sources. “It is clear that viable alternatives to fossil fuels are needed – and soon,” he said.

However, Mr. Ban stressed that all alternatives must be weighed carefully, from science to public health and safety, taking into account the full range of benefits and risks involved.

Chernobyl led to revised safety standards in nuclear power plants and showed that nuclear emergencies require the highest level of coordination among a wide range of agencies and actors, he said.

Other alternative sources of energy need equal scrutiny, the Secretary-General maintained. “Biofuels, for example, which seemed so attractive at first, may have important negative consequences, such as diminished food security, since land given over to biofuels is land taken out of food production,” he said.