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

Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief and key negotiator for the Paris Agreement, has warned that countries are being "held hostage" by their dependence on fossil fuels. She characterized the health consequences of climate change as "the mother of all injustices." This warning came as she was announced as co-chair of a new Lancet Commission. The commission will investigate how rising sea levels are impacting global health, wellbeing, and exacerbating inequality. Figueres stressed that sea-level rise constitutes a health crisis, emphasizing the critical need to hold polluters accountable for these detrimental effects.