Speakers
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Dear Ladies and Gentleman,
I am delighted to speak to you today on behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry and the five other federal ministries involved in the One Health research agreement.
Two years ago, the well-regarded German Research Platform for Zoonoses became the One Health Platform, broadening its focus beyond human and animal health to include environmental health. This was the right decision. The Platform involves six federal ministries – Health, Agriculture, Research and Technology, Economic Cooperation, Environment and Defence. I would like to thank the staff of the Zoonoses Platform office and the members of the Scientific Advisory Board, who have been instrumental in facilitating the transition to the new platform. Their experience and expertise lay the groundwork for managing and improving the new platform. Your work on the One Health Platform is invaluable. The Platform’s research agenda shows that you are already putting the principles of the One Health approach into practice.
At a time when we are facing global challenges such as pandemics, pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, it is essential that we take an integrated view of human, animal and environmental health. And underscore the importance of One Health as an integral part of our political and scientific agenda. One good example of how human and animal health and the environment are closely interconnected is climate change: its far-reaching impacts are already being felt today but will become even more serious in future. Higher temperatures are negatively affecting human and animal health, and diseases once rarely seen at our latitudes are now spreading. And the impacts of climate change on the environment affect humans and animals, too – for example water scarcity – a problem compounded by increased pollution.
As a result of insights like this, the One Health approach has gained in importance in recent years, making its way into policies at national, European and international level. I would like to outline this briefly.
