Journal Seventeen Nr. 3

As on some other occasions in our history, the collective shock of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily opens the opportunity to question the status quo and promote transformations that make our societies more just, sustainable and secure. The possibility of identifying these opportunities and turning them into reforms that last over time depends on us. 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has a specific Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) related to health and well-being, SDG3, which aims to guarantee a healthy life and promote well-being for all. The approach ‘health in all policies’, proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO), urges to consider the impact of public policies on the health of the population, showing that other SDGs different to SDG3 are also related to it. Therefore, a broad and transversal approach to health is proposed within the 2030 Agenda, which we call SDG3+.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the mobility limitations imposed to try to contain its spread have led to a drastic decrease in emissions of air pollutants and CO2. For the former, the drop in the atmospheric concentrations of the main urban air pollutants leads to a decrease in mortality attributable to air pollution. This has not been the case in the case of CO2 emissions; though they have decreased by close to 8%, that is insufficient to show a measurable impact in the context of the climate crisis. On the other hand, social distancing measures can have counterproductive effects on other prevention systems related to health effects aggravated by climate change, such as in the case of heat waves.

Unemployment and precariousness are one of the major determinants of poverty in Spain and have been aggravated by the economic crisis of the last decade. The lack of resources threatens the food security of families who are forced to adopt purchasing strategies that lead to a reduction in the consumption of fresh food and an increase in refined and ultraprocessed products.