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The COP30 Presidency launched the Belem Health Action Plan (BHAP), the first international climate adaptation framework dedicated specifically to health, on November 13.
As climate negotiations entered their fourth day in the Amazonian city of Belém, an investment of US$300 million was announced to support implementation of the plan, which outlines 60 action items across surveillance systems, evidence-based policies, and health innovation to address the health risks.
The plan provides a roadmap for countries to confront the escalating climate-related health threats, from heatwaves and vector-borne diseases to the disruption of food and water systems. It is also a part of the COP30 Action Agenda, aligned with Objective 16, which promotes resilient health systems in the face of the climate crisis.
In the last decade, the health impacts of climate change have accelerated sharply – from increase in heat-related illnesses, waterborne and vector-borne diseases and outbreaks to malnutrition from reduced crop productivity.
According to estimates by the World Bank Group, climate change could result in 14.5-15.6 million deaths by 2050. Against this backdrop, the one-time US$ 300 million grant for climate-health adaptation measures was inadequate, especially when compared with the estimated requirement of US$11 billion annually, for basic health adaptation alone, as noted by the United Nations Environment Programme.
In fact, the most recent Adaptation Gap Report had highlighted that just 4 per cent of multilateral climate adaptation funding between 2019 and 2023 was allocated to health. A recent report by adelphi, a European think-and-do tank for climate and development, had also stressed that of all multilateral climate finance, only 0.5 per cent goes to health.
“With regards to finance, the reality is that we have a deficit that is quite colossal,” said Carlos Lopes, Special Envoy for Africa, COP30 Presidency. He was speaking during a separate press conference at COP30 on ‘Positioning Health at the Centre of Adaptation Finance’ on November 13.
While the Brazilian Presidency on November 13 called on nations to strengthen disease surveillance, build climate-resilient infrastructure, and protect vulnerable populations from the health impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather through this plan, only a handful of countries have adopted BHAP.
The plan has received endorsement from more than 80 countries and institutions. However, the majority of these were from civil society organisations, global health think tanks, philanthropies, and United Nations agencies.
The global framework sets out steps for countries to build climate-resilient health systems that can withstand extreme weather and disease outbreaks and mobilise finance and technology to support adaptation and reduce emissions in healthcare.
Highlighting how the current funding was nowhere near sufficient, Marina Romanello, Lancet Countdown Executive Director, Institute for Global Health, University College London said that only 44 per cent of countries have costed their health adaptation needs, and existing finance falls short by billions.
“Each year more than half a million lives are lost due to heat, and over 150,000 deaths are linked to wildfire smoke exposure,” she said during the press conference organised by Regions4, the Global Climate & Health Alliance and CarbonCopy.
Despite appearing on the COP agenda for over a decade (since 2013), health-related progress has been limited, and the shortfalls are most acute in lower- and middle-income countries.
“There are multiple layers of complexity in the relationship between climate and health, from the narratives we use to the policies we negotiate and the finance we mobilise,” said Lopes. “Each layer is contested and unless we align them, we risk losing coherence in our global response.”