Health sector fights for space in climate change discussions

African experts meeting in Lilongwe Malawi on Tuesday urged that health be a key agenda at the 28th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change set for Dubai in November.

The high level meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi and dubbed ‘In pursuit of a unified African position on health in climate negotiations’ the experts noted that climate change has worsened the pre-existing public health inequalities and will most likely affect attainment of the 2030 sustainable development agenda.

“Evidence needed to qualify and connect health with climate change already exists. What I hope this conference will come out with, is what sort of evidence do we need to put on the table to not only say that this is important in perspective of human rights or climate justice but also on investment perspective,” said Dr Eliya Zulu, Executive Director, African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP).

He said climate change impacts health impacts are disproportionately harmful on the disadvantaged populations – including women and girls, indigenous communities, people in crisis, and the displaced people like those that suffered during Cyclone Freddy that hit Malawi early in the year.

Dr.Githinji Gitahi – Global CEO of Amref Africa decried the low role health has been given in the climate change discourses when its impacts are no longer secret.

“Health has been an orphan of climate change conversation despite the obvious connections. Climate-related diseases, including COVID-19 continue to have huge impacts on our economies in the increase global warming,” he said.

Dr. Mithika Mwenda, the Chief Executive Officer, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) said the Malawi meeting should map out a major campaign to bring health as a critical sector in international climate change negotiations and interventions.

According to WHO, Climate change will account for 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. At the current rate of adverse climate impacts, it, will be achieved. Everyone is harmed by the effects of climate change to some degree.

Several Intergovernmental panel on climate change reports have showed that Africa is the continent most at risk of the adverse effects of climate change, both because of the expected change itself and the perceived lack of capacity of Africans and their governments to adapt to these effects.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, at least 57% of the countries experience the tremendous burden of climate-induced and political fragility hazards.

Ahead of the COP 28, AFIDEP join calls for greater application of PED approaches to yield the triple wins envisaged in sustainable development that would concurrently reduce fertility and slow population growth, preserve natural resources and enhance the resilience of communities and countries to impacts of climate change, and improve the wellbeing of women, their families, and communities.

We are aware that there is little appreciation of the fact that climate change affects multiple social determinants of health, particularly in sub Saharan Africa.

“In the new context of Climate Change, it is only prudent that governments develop and strengthen responsive Health Systems to meet needs of population health,” said Dr Zulu.
According to the 2022 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) NDC Synthesis Report, considering the implementation of NDCs until 2030, the best estimate of peak temperature in the twenty-first century is 2.1–2.9°C. Such levels of warming would be catastrophic for human health.

The CSOs noted that while health is embedded in core UNFCCC documents, with the human right to health recognized in the Paris Agreement and the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, the linkages between health and climate change have not featured prominently in COP discussions, a thing that they want changed.