Doctors for the Environment Australia

11/12/2025

With your support, our incredible team of volunteer medical students and doctors can continue their vital work advocating for climate action to protect human and planetary health.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has already donated to our end-of-year appeal 💚

As a charity, we rely on the generosity of our members and supporters in the community to keep going.

🔗 Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our End of Year appeal today. Donation link in the comments below 👇

11/12/2025

DEA warmly congratulates the Victorian Government on its landmark commitment to power all public hospitals with 100% renewable electricity from 1 July this year, through the State Electricity Commission initiative.

For more than a decade, DEA has called for hospitals and healthcare facilities to embrace all-electric, renewable-powered infrastructure as a cornerstone of sustainable, climate-resilient care.

This policy commitment is a huge win for climate and health, and a crucial step toward reducing the healthcare sector’s environmental footprint.

Read our full media release via the link in the comments below 👇

08/12/2025

All donations to DEA go directly to the running of our organisation. With your support, our volunteer doctors and medical students can continue standing up for the health of our people and planet 💚

🔗 Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our End of Year appeal today. dea.org.au/donate

08/12/2025

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these devastating bushfires 💚

The increasing frequency of bushfires, with associated increases in bushfire smoke and air pollution, is just one of the many ways that climate change is putting human health at risk.

If you live in a bushfire prone area, please take a moment to read our tips on how you can protect yourself and your family from harmful smoke this bushfire season.

🔗 To learn more about how bushfires impact human health, read our fact sheet via the link in the comments below 👇

04/12/2025

Doctors for the Environment Australia strongly supports the Greens motion in the WA Parliament that would allow local governments to exclude gas connections from new residential and commercial developments, citing overwhelming evidence that gas appliances pose serious risks to public health.

While the ACT and Victoria have already banned gas in new homes, Western Australia has lagged behind. Sydney and several other councils in NSW have also banned or are planning to ban gas in new homes. This motion represents an opportunity for WA to catch up and prioritise health by empowering local councils to make decisions that protect their communities.

Read our full media release via the link in the comments below 👇

04/12/2025

There is no place for new coal in a climate-safe future.

03/12/2025

DEA member Dr John Van Der Kallen has co-authored an important new journal article, highlighting how our changing climate is already impacting people with autoimmune and rheumatic diseases.

The article examines the carbon footprint of rheumatology as a specialty, and outlines practical steps that physicians can take to cut emissions and protect patient health.

Read the full article, published online in 'Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America' here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889857X25000791?dgcid=author

02/12/2025

Doctors took to the water to join Rising Tide’s People’s Blockade of the world’s largest coal port.

Their message was clear: coal and gas are health hazards. To protect the health of our people and planet, our government must move us on from fossil fuels.

02/12/2025

It's Giving Tuesday: Can you help us make 2026 our best year yet?

If you're in the position to donate this Giving Tuesday, it will greatly enhance our ability to make 2026, DEA's 25th Anniversary year, our most active and successful year yet. Our target is $60,000 by 31 December 2025.

If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, head to the link in the comments below 👇💚

01/12/2025

Over the weekend, DEA members took part in The Rising Tide People’s Blockade of the world’s largest coal port.

We are so proud of our members for exercising their right to peaceful protest 💚🌏

Our message was clear: coal and gas are health hazards. To protect the health of our people and planet, our government must move us on from fossil fuels.

28/11/2025

This week, Australia officially endorsed the Belém Health Action Plan, a global plan to help countries prepare their health systems for the growing impacts of climate change.

Days later, the Australian Government approved new nature laws that allow major coal and gas projects to be approved without any assessment of their health impacts.

We end this week by celebrating the progress that has been made, whilst also acknowledging that there's a lot more work to be done.

As our executive director, Dr Kate Wylie says in this article for The Medical Republic,

"Just like every cigarette is doing us damage, every tonne of carbon added to the atmosphere damages us too... and just as medical professionals called out the health harms of to***co which led to comprehensive regulation, we are now calling for regulation of fossil fuels."

In the same week that Australia co-signed a global action plan to minimise the impact of climate change on health systems, doctors are warning that federal government environment reforms do not go far enough.

27/11/2025

Today, Labor and the Greens struck a historic deal to overhaul Australia’s national environment laws. This is a huge win for the environment and for communities who’ve fought for stronger protections for decades.

Doctors for the Environment Australia would like to congratulate our members, environmental advocacy groups, and everyone in Parliament who fought long and hard for environmental laws that will actually protect our environment.

Unfortunately, the proposed amendments still prevent the Environment Minister from considering the climate pollution of new coal and gas projects. With our communities already feeling the impacts of rising heat, air pollution, extreme weather, and ecological collapse, this is a worrying omission.

The laws establish a definition of “unacceptable impacts on nationally protected matters” and national environmental standards. Worryingly, the proposed definition of “unacceptable impacts” does not include human health effects. This effectively allows the Environment Minister, Senator Murray Watt, to approve a proposal without assessing the risk it poses to public health.

How can a project that could potentially lead to deaths be deemed acceptable?

This is a meaningful win, but we will not stop fighting until our laws recognise that any threat to our health is an unacceptable impact.