Online | August 14, 2026 | 11:00 CEST
Global Health Futures: Scanning the Horizon for Emerging Risk and Opportunity
An EXTRA Webinar (Existential Threats and Risks to All), an initiative of WAAS (World Academy of Arts and Science).
This webinar explores a broad spectrum of global health risks, asking: How do other existential risks – such as climate change, conflict, food crises, AI and inequality – impact on global health, what existential or catastrophic risks are arising within the health sector itself, and how prepared are we to cope with them?
While ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’ has been a top priority in the UN’s 2030 Agenda (SDG 3), the world is falling short of health targets according the WHOs recent World Health Statistics 2026 report. As director Tedros Ghebreyesus notes, successes are uneven across regions and health systems are increasingly vulnerable to systemic shocks. Progress has stalled on reduction in mortality due to noncommunicable diseases, which remain the leading causes of death globally. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic caused about 22 million excess deaths, wiping out a decade of gains in life expectancy. And global development assistance for health has plummeted by 30-40 per cent in 2025. Reduced access to medicines for diseases such as HIV and to vaccines, as well as declining surveillance capacity leave us poorly prepared for the next outbreak. Project HOPE in a recent statement similarly has warned of growing vaccination gaps and outbreak risks, increased Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), a mental health epidemic, a health workforce crisis and other threats.
Against the backdrop of these reports, Ana Maria Pareschev and Prof Thomas Reuter from the EXTRA will be hosting three world class health experts who will share with you their unique insights into emerging health risks, as well as opportunities through policy and technical innovation.
Moderators
Prof. Dr. Thomas Reuter, Chair, EXTRA
Prof., University of Melbourne; Trustee, World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS)
Ana Maria Paraschiv, EXTRA
Founder, Ubuntu World
Speakers
Prof Andrew Haines, University of London
Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was its director from 2001 to 2010. He is a founder of the ‘Planetary Health’ concept, arguing that earth system damage impacts human health. He was a member of the IPCC for three assessment reports, chaired the Scientific Advisory Panel for the 2013 WHO World Health Report, the Rockefeller /Lancet Commission on Planetary Health, the Lancet Pathfinder Commission on health in the zero-carbon economy, and the InterAcademy Partnership working group on climate change. He is chief scientific advisor to the pan-European Commission on Climate Change and Health, and received the Tyler prize for Environmental Achievement in 2022.
Dr Nabeel Goheer, PATH’s chief of Asia, Middle East, Europe Region
Nabeel is currently providing strategic leadership and overseeing program activities in PATH’s regional hubs in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China, and Western Europe. Before joining PATH, he held senior roles at the Commonwealth Secretariat, International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Government of Pakistan.
Prof Stefan Brunnhuber
Stefan is medical director of the teaching hospital of Dresden and Salzburg University and chief physician in the department of psychiatry. He holds a chair in sustainability and social medicine at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. He is a trustee of WAAS and member of the Club of Rome. He served for 10 years as Vice-chairman of the European Institute of Medicine, a member of several international working groups for the European Academy, at the EU Commission as political and corporate consultant and was a founding member of Alma Mater Europeae. He has expertise on the psychology of the anthropocene, risk analysis and new financial engineering. He was awarded the Federal K. Tschirra award in 2020.
