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$ 1 bn global financial commitments at COP28 to address climate-health crisis
A total of $ 1 billion global financial commitments were made upon the launch of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health which aims to place health at the heart of climate action and accelerate the development of climate-resilient, sustainable and equitable health systems.
A wide range of stakeholders, including governments, development banks, multilateral institutions, philanthropies, and NGOs, made the commitment to expand their investments in climate and health solutions.
Speaking on the climate health principles, Mafalda Duarte- Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund said: “These Guiding Principles come at a pivotal moment in our fight against climate change. By creating and implementing this holistic and more equitable framework, we will find whole-of-economy benefits for prioritizing health in climate financing.”
The COP28 Presidency recognizes that reducing the health impacts of climate change will require action across all of society, including rapid and large-scale action to decarbonize energy systems to reduce emissions by at least 43% over the next seven years.
To this end, the announcement of the Declaration at the World Climate Action Summit on December 2nd was just one of a number of announcements from the COP28 Presidency, which recognized the need to reduce the health impacts of climate change beyond the health sector and included new initiatives to drive rapid decarbonization to reduce emissions by at least 43% over the next seven years to keep 1.5C within reach.
The Declaration recognized that finance will be a significant driver of the Declaration’s success.
The Declaration – launched by the COP28 Presidency in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) – was signed by 123 countries, marking the world’s first acknowledgement of the need for governments to protect communities and prepare healthcare systems to cope with climate-related health impacts such as extreme heat, air pollution and infectious diseases.
The Declaration was developed with the support of a number of ‘country champions’ including Brazil, Malawi, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Kenya, Fiji, India, Egypt, Sierra Leone, and Germany. This joint action comes as annual deaths from polluted air hit almost 9 million and as 189 million people are exposed to extreme weather-related events each year.
“The impacts of climate change are already at our door. They have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. Governments have now rightly recognized health as a crucial element of climate action” said COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber. He continued “the Declaration sends a strong signal that we must reduce global emissions and work together to strengthen our health systems”.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis, but for too long, health has been a footnote in climate discussions,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO thanks the UAE for making health a key priority in its COP28 Presidency, and welcomes this declaration, which emphasizes the need to build climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems, to protect the health of both planet and people.”
The Declaration covered a range of action areas at the nexus of climate and health, including building more climate-resilient health systems, strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration to reduce emissions and maximize the health benefits of climate action, and increasing 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, including at future COPs.
As such, the COP28 Presidency joined with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Green Climate Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Health Organization to unveil a set of ten principles to bolster financing for climate and health, mobilize new and additional finance, and foster innovation with transformative projects and new multisector approaches. Endorsed by over 40 financing partners and civil society organizations, the COP28 Guiding Principles for Financing Climate and Health Solutions signal the growing collaboration across funders and the momentum to support climate and health solutions in a sustainable manner.
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