A very warm welcome to everyone joining us at the second ECAPH conference here at QUT. This conference is bringing together global research leaders with early and mid-career researchers to share knowledge and ideas across a range of critical environmental health issues. Our participants and delegates come from around the globe, and we’re here to discuss worldwide concerns.

The interconnectedness of people has never been clearer than in the last 18 months with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor has the need for global cooperation to solve a global health problem been more apparent. While much of our attention may have been taken by the pandemic, environmental health crises continue to unfold. In the case of climate change, the need to address this has become even more urgent. Over 2020 we have seen cascading catastrophes; mega fires, major floods, landslides, record heat and record cold. The pandemic at the same time compounds complexity and risks associated with emergency and disaster response, and demonstrates that crises can be multiple and complex, that disasters don’t line up neatly one after the other to wait their turn.

Forums like ECAPH bring diverse people and their ideas together, promote research networking and build collaborations. It’s these types of conversations and collaborations that will help us understand and deal with the increasing complexity in environmental health in our interconnected world.