The links between climate and health are well understood. As the world warms and extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity, threats to human health are increasing. That’s very clear at a conceptual level.
But at a practical level these two worlds can find themselves operating in isolation. Whether in policy, programs, research, or finance, siloes form. Focus narrows. Connections fray. Systems thinking becomes confined to the system in which we operate.
To accelerate our progress towards the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, we must broaden our horizons and connect both within and across systems.
It has been almost 15 years since the impacts of climate change on health were first considered in earnest under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP15 in 2010 produced the Cancun Agreements, the first to emphasize the importance of considering human health in climate change responses. Five years later, the Paris Agreement enshrined this in the document that still acts as our guiding light, committing to respect, promote, and consider obligations on human rights and the right to health. Earlier, in 2008, WHA61.19 had served to bring climate change to the health community.
Recently, greater challenges have demanded a greater response. There was a firm linkage between climate and health at COP28. The Leaders’ Declaration on Climate and Health, signed by 144 Heads of State, laid out commitments on GHGs, air pollution, active mobility, and shifts to healthy and sustainable diets. US$2.9 billion was mobilized for climate and health solutions. One hundred and ten health ministries were represented at a climate-health ministerial summit that covered topics ranging from air pollution to infectious diseases to mental health. Health outcomes amid the climate talks were the focus of the Health Day. And under the formal negotiations, the Global Goal on Adaptation set out an ambition to create targets relating to food, water and health.
The health community, which gathered at Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly (WHA77) last week, may just have returned the favor with the new Resolution on climate and health. This acknowledges the need for mitigation, adaptation and resilience-building efforts in health systems. It recognizes a range of health threats associated with climate change and calls for action to reduce their impacts. Crucially, it promotes inter- and multi-sectoral cooperation between health and climate actors, for a “coherent and holistic approach.”
On World Environment Day this year, the 60th Session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) is taking place in Bonn, the key moment on the UNFCCC calendar between COPs. It is essential that these climate negotiations incorporate health to the same encouraging degree as the WHA integrated climate.
There are plenty of opportunities to do so. The Global Stocktake and Global Goal on Adaptation texts include paragraphs on resilience against climate-related health impacts and reducing climate-related morbidity and mortality. They also highlight food security and nutrition specifically, as does the Sharm Joint Work on Agriculture and Food Security. About a dozen side events include health themes.
The links between climate change and health are clear. The need for collaboration is clear. And the role of food systems, food security and nutrition at the core of this has been acknowledged for a long time.
Why, then, have efforts run in parallel rather than in harmony? A key reason is the complexity of working across such a broad range of topics. It may be simple, but it is not easy. Ministries of Health need to become expert in matters relating to climate, food, agriculture, water, and energy. Ministries of Agriculture need to balance the trade-offs between economic and social, health and environmental outcomes. Ministries of Environment need to take cross-cutting approaches ensure climate, nature and biodiversity are at the heart of all policies and strategies, while balancing their other development goals. All this needs to take place in a challenging (geo)political and economic context.
We, the development community, must lead by example in promoting cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary thinking. And we are.
A good example is the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), born at COP26, which has been instrumental in aligning efforts. Its working groups include several focusing on health systems, as well as the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition (I-CAN), co-chaired by the Government of Egypt and GAIN, together with U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, Scaling Up Nutrition, and U.N. Nutrition.
I-CAN seeks to accelerate action at the nexus of climate change and nutrition by looking across agrifood, water, health, and social protection systems to identify opportunities for integrated action and, ultimately, win-wins. It is supporting policymakers to strengthen this multi-benefit thinking so it is manifested in key climate and nutrition policies and strategies. It is also providing new insight on how finance can serve multiple goals, how research can take a cross-cutting view, and how businesses can take action on both climate and nutrition.
After WHA77 last week, the climate community gathers this week and next for SB60. Separated by two days and 500km, as if two tracks running in parallel. And never the twain shall meet.
But there is hope. ATACH, I-CAN, the UNFCCC negotiations, the COP28 Declarations, the Technical Cooperation Collaborative, and the WHA Resolution all suggest growing momentum towards stronger integration at a conceptual level and, crucially, in implementation. At this World Environment Day, the connections between the health and nutrition community and the climate and environment community are stronger than ever. We now all need to redouble our efforts to make sure this integration is sustained.
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Photo courtesy of Lukasz Szmigiel, Unsplash
