New global agreement recognises the importance of a healthy environment for future pandemics prevention
Posted on May, 20 2025
WWF welcomes the adoption of the agreement and stands ready to support action to secure the health of people and the planet
May 20, 2025. Today the World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organisation, meeting in Geneva, adopted the agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The agreement began to be developed and negotiated in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic devastated lives all around the world.The text that was agreed by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body and forwarded to the Assembly for approval includes provisions on prevention, the welfare of the health work force, technology transfer, access and benefit sharing, a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, and much more.
Crucially, the agreement recognises that human health is interconnected with the health of animals and the environment, and outlines the need for governments to take measures to address the drivers of pandemics at the human-animal-environment interface.
For WWF, it is particularly welcome that the agreement highlights the One Health Approach. This approach acknowledges that human health and well-being is inseparable from wider planetary health and provides a basis for implementing an integrated, unifying way forward that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals, and ecosystems.
The agreement will be open for signatures once its annex on a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System is negotiated and it will enter into force when the 60th country has ratified it.
Wendy Elliot, WWF Global Biodiversity Lead, said:
"The health of our planet is deeply interconnected to the health of us all. Following the devastating impacts of COVID-19, it is welcome to see countries coming together to adopt this agreement and recognise nature’s role in preventing future pandemics.
“As we look to countries to now move quickly toward signing, ratifying and beginning to implement the various aspects of this agreement, WWF stands ready to partner with governments and other stakeholders to address the drivers of infectious disease and pandemics and help secure the health of people and the planet.”
ENDS
NOTES
At the Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 in 2024, WWF published Toward a Healthy Planet: Implementing a One Health Approach to Conservation. The report highlights the crucial link between environmental health and human well-being, offering practical guidance to implement One Health across six strategic areas: landscape immunity, wildlife trade, preventive medicine, pathogen early warning and monitoring, sustainable livestock management, and behaviour change. This integrated and unifying approach aims to harmonise the health of people, animals and the environment.
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