COP28 Declaration on climate change and health a landmark move

As many as 123 countries signed a new declaration on climate and health to recognise the linkage between climate change and public health. They did this on the eve of the first-ever ‘Health Day’ at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The COP28 Presidency and the World Health Organization (WHO) together issued the ‘COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health’. Its signatories aim to accelerate action to protect public health and communities from negative and growing climate impacts and strengthen healthcare systems to cope with the effects of extreme heat, air pollution, infectious and zoonotic diseases and environmental risk factors.

The process of this initiative has been supported by a group of ‘champion countries’ that include India, Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Egypt, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Fiji and others.

The declaration states that devastating health impacts are already evident in the almost nine million annual deaths from air pollution and exposure of 189 million people to extreme weather events annually. This indicates that the protection of health has to become central to climate action.

This new declaration seeks policy intervention to build more climate-resilient health systems, cross-sectoral collaboration to reduce emissions, maximise the health benefits of climate action and increase finance for climate and health solutions.

Signatories have also committed to incorporate health targets in their national climate plans and improve international collaboration to address the health risks of climate change and monitor progress in all global forums including future COPs and health ministerials.

The significant aspect of this initiative is the effort made to get commitments on finance. Collectively, a wide range of partners and stakeholders have already committed to dedicate $1 billion to meet the growing needs of the climate-health crisis.

Guiding principles have also been laid on the table to support financing of climate and health solutions more sustainably. The stakeholders include governments, development banks, multilateral institutions, philanthropies and non-profits.

The focus on health action is expected to catalyse action to cut emissions,  accelerate energy decarbonisation process, reduce waste in the health sector and lead to better integration of health considerations in climate policies. This can result in improved adaptation across sectors including water and sanitation, housing, urban planning, food and agriculture, transport and energy. This underscores equity based comprehensive health system responses.   

A big step forward

Efforts to integrate climate action with health protection had started way back in 2016. That is when the WHO along with the Government of France, that then held the Presidency of COP, had jointly hosted the second global conference on health and climate to build healthier societies through implementation of the Paris Agreement. There was a plea to use the Paris climate treaty also as a public health treaty.

The WHO had warned that as per the Global Burden of Disease 23 per cent of the global deaths were linked to the environment including air pollution, which was further worsened by climate change. Moreover, climate change was likely to kill an additional 250,000 or more people each year by 2030. Most of these deaths would occur due to climatic stress, food insecurity and vector borne diseases.

Deaths and devastation from extreme weather events would magnify the health burden several times in the developing world and would erode economic gains especially in low income countries and island nations. The stark spotlight was on air pollution that kills around nine million globally today and is also a climate rogue.

Operationalise the health agenda

This initiative has to gather momentum. If health is integrated with climate action, it can help to target opportunities for mitigation and adaptation across sectors, promote integrated health mitigation strategies, strengthen core public health systems and scale up more aligned decarbonisation action. More evidence based action on health risks and benefits can support decision making.

Global governance can work more effectively for the larger public good and wellbeing. This can not only facilitate the global finance flow but also influence national budgets and action to address the high health costs from climate change. Clearly, health can be a powerful lever to mainstream equity across multi-sector solutions.

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