Coordinator of the WHO Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, Elena Villalobos, announced in an interview during the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) that Health Day could be an argument to promote more ambitious emissions reduction commitments.
Villalobos, who worked for 15 years on this team, revealed that at first it was very difficult to explain the importance of addressing the effects of the climate crisis on human health, and the World Health Organization is working to make it visible.
He stressed that there will also be for the first time a ministerial meeting in which nearly 50 health ministers from around the world will participate and a declaration on climate change and health signed by more than 100 sector heads.
He stressed that it is “a call to all world leaders to make ambitious commitments to solve the problem that is already affecting us.”
He stated that depending on the country, it depends on what kind of impact climate change has on health. In countries such as Spain and Portugal, there are forest fires and heat waves, the latter also affecting Africa and the Middle East and causing the death of many people.
He also warned of an increase in infectious diseases such as dengue fever and malaria. Throughout Central America and the Caribbean, there are many cases of dengue fever that debilitate our children.
He determined that malnutrition is linked to water quality and causes diarrhea deaths among minors in African countries. Therefore, depending on the context, the effects are everywhere, but different, he emphasized.
When referring to how climate change could reverse progress in the sector, he noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had shown that if there was no funding, there was strength in health systems to respond to unexpected events such as a heat wave or other extreme phenomena. Like cold weather. Hurricanes or floods, those systems collapse.
“This is what actually happens if we do not invest in health systems,” he warned.
On behalf of the World Health Organization, he expressed optimism that the health issue would allow the leaders gathered at COP28 to move towards a meeting between countries. If we invest in health, we will be able to reduce the economic cost of treating these issues.
He added that seven people die every year due to exposure to environmental pollution, hence the need to implement more measures in the field of transportation and urban planning that reduce these emissions.
We will be doing the economy a favor by providing a healthier population by citing data that ensures that investments in health will yield multiple benefits for the economic quantity used.
Memory/NMR
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