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Many of us remember Drs. Mike Ryan and Tony Holohan who led the Global and Irish emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most people don’t know though, that their leadership was enabled by a mechanism called the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC pronounced feck).
At this symposium, we'll call for PHEIC to be used to energise Ireland to act on the climate and nature crises. Ireland has a unique opportunity to act whilst hosting the Presidency of the Council of the European Union by putting climate, biodiversity loss and public health at the heart of the European and global agenda. Chaired by Dr. Tony Holohan, both global and local leaders in health, nature, climate, law, policy and activism will imagine what would be possible if PHEIC was used to respond to the nature, climate and health crises.
A PHEIC would invoke formal governance frameworks, mandate a step change in the government’s response, and better support for public health as we navigate the unprecedented impacts of climate change. This includes establishing national climate and health surveillance systems, and supporting policy measures grounded in health.
The climate crisis is irrefutably a public health emergency. As we breach the 1.5˚C warming limit and seven of nine planetary boundaries, we loom ever closer to irreversible climate tipping points that will prove detrimental to public health. However, there are solutions at hand, and a coordinated international governance response is essential to address this emergency with the urgency that the evidence demands.
Initiated by Trinity School of Medicine, this event is a partnership with Irish Doctors for the Environment, Trinity Sustainability, Trinity Climate Gateway, the Southern Africa Consortium for Climate Change Research and Policy and the All-Ireland One Health Collaborative Network. It launches the inaugural One Health Festival running from 20th November to 27th November 2026, an initiative of the All-Ireland One Health Collaborative Network. It is funded by Trinity School of Medicine, Healthy Trinity within Trinity Sustainability and supported by Wellcome Trust [336423/Z/25/Z].
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Chair, Dr Tony Holohan
Director of the UCD One Health Centre, a WHO Collaborating Centre for One Health and Adjunct Full Professor of Public Health at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.
He served as Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer from 2008 to 2022. His current work focuses on translating One Health, which recognises the connections between human, animal, plant and environmental health, into practical policy and action.
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Dr Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a founding member of The Elders.
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Dr Mike Ryan
An epidemiologist, serving for 30 years at the World Health Organization.
He was the executive director of the WHO's emergencies programme for 8 years, at the forefront of humanitarian crises such as Gaza, Myanmar, and Sudan, becoming an internationally prominent figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Prof Jane Stout
Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at Trinity College Dublin and Professor of Ecology (Botany)
She has three decades of academic experience at the intersection of people an nature and co-founded the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and the Natural Capital Ireland.
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Robb Butler
Senior international public-health leader with extensive experience in global health, climate change, environmental health, health systems and humanitarian action
He is one of the co-authors of a September 2026 call to declare the climate crisis a public health emergency of international concern in the Lancet.
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Orlagh Gaynor
Physiotherapist and Operations Officer for Irish Doctors for the Environment (IDE).
She advocates for sustainable healthcare, the inclusion of planetary health into medical and allied health education curricula, and helped establish the Environment Physiotherapy Network with the ISCP.
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Professor Matthew Chersich
Medical doctor and public-health researcher with more than 25 years’ experience conducting research across Africa. He is Executive Director of Wits Planetary Health Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa,
and a Research Fellow in Public Health and Primary Care at Trinity College Dublin. He is also one of the co-authors of a September 2026 call to declare the climate crisis a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in the Lancet.