The upcoming 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which will be hosted by the UAE from 30th November to 12th December, will focus on the crucial topic of the relationship between climate change and human health.
This year’s event will dedicate one day specifically for health, marking the first time in the history of COP conferences.
The UAE’s initiative to dedicate a day for health at COP28 has been widely praised by international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) as Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, thanked the UAE for its initiative during the WHO Regional Meeting for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo on Wednesday. He had also previously praised the UAE initiative during a joint meeting of the G20 finance and health ministers in Gujarat, India.
The WHO confirms that climate change is the biggest health threat to humanity, with environmental factors causing the death of around 13 million people each year. Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement could save approximately one million lives annually worldwide by 2050 through reducing air pollution alone. Avoiding the worst climate impacts could also prevent an additional 250,000 climate-related deaths annually from 2030 to 2050, primarily due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.
Reducing carbon emissions can provide health benefits that are almost double the global cost of implementing carbon mitigation measures, according to the WHO. The organization believes that health systems are the primary defense for populations facing new health threats, including climate change. Countries must build resilient health systems to climate change to protect health and avoid widening health disparities.
The WHO highlights that most countries consider health a priority sector highly affected by climate change. However, there is still a significant financial gap, with less than 2% of multilateral climate finance allocated to health projects. To reduce diseases and stabilize the climate, providing clean air, fresh water, medicines, and food security is of paramount importance. The loss of biodiversity, which is occurring at an unprecedented rate, increases the risk of the emergence of infectious diseases and affects human health worldwide.
The United Nations has confirmed that food production, packaging, and distribution systems generate a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable production could help mitigate climate impacts and support more nutritious diets that could prevent nearly 11 million premature deaths annually.
