ENVIRONMENTAL risks to health, like many of the challenges currently facing the world, are too complex and inter-connected to be dealt with by simplistic, short-term solutions or by individual actors.
Nevertheless, climate-sensitive health risks are currently disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people; including women, children, ethnic minorities, poor communities, migrants or displaced persons, older populations and those with underlying health conditions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that, to avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Past emissions have already made a certain level of global temperature rise and other changes to the climate inevitable. However, global heating of even 1,5°C is not considered safe; as every additional 10th of a degree of warming will take a serious toll on people’s lives and health.
This makes the fulfilment of the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ by all nations important. It is the world’s first global development plan, which offers a unique opportunity for coherent, long-term action by all and for all.
There is increasing evidence of human-induced warming over land regions across Africa. African policymakers are aware of the consequences of inaction on climate change, which includes temperatures rising by more than 4oC by the end of this century.
As a result, many national governments across Africa have initiated climate adaptation programmes that focus on mechanisms such as public awareness, disaster risk management, adjustments to relevant technologies and scientific-based approaches to farming.
Governments, including the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ), are bringing several Ministries and Departments together; thus connecting environment, climate and health sectors to take action jointly.
Ministers of Health and Environment at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Morocco on April 15 1994, signed the Marrakech Ministerial Declaration on Health, Environment and Climate Change.
The Marrakech Declaration, which came in force on January 1 1995, acknowledged the lack of a global mechanism to bring together the environment and health sectors to work on saving lives and protecting the planet, and called on the relevant UN agencies to put such a mechanism in place.
While air pollution was their first priority due to the huge health impacts that it causes, as well as its close links with other risks, such as climate change and chemical contamination, the challenge remained to follow up the Marrakech Declaration with actions.
Simple interventions, such as reducing vehicle emissions and investments in rapid transit systems, would help reduce global warming and save lives.
Morocco, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo committed themselves to introduce low sulphur fuels by July 2017.
Athens, Madrid, Mexico City and Paris planned to ban diesel vehicles by 2025.
Implementing proven interventions to address short-lived climate pollutants could save over 2,4 million lives a year and reduce global warming by approximately 0,5oC, by 2050. Though it is evidently clear that climate change affects human health; to accurately estimate the scale and impact of many climate-sensitive health risks remains challenging.
However, scientific evidence increasingly attributes an increase in morbidity and mortality to human-induced global warming, and to accurately determine the risks and scale of these health threats.
In the short to medium-term, the health impacts of climate change will be determined mainly by the vulnerability of populations, their resilience to the current rate of climate change and the extent and pace of adaptation.
In the longer-term, the effects will increasingly depend on the extent to which transformational action is taken to reduce emissions and avoid the breaching of dangerous temperature thresholds and potential irreversible tipping points.
Failure to take into account the health impacts of air pollution and other environmental damages is estimated to amount to a US5,3 trillion-dollar subsidy to polluting energy sources. Failure to protect populations from environmental risks is not just a human cost, but places an additional strain on health services.
Health service-related cost is among the largest financial burdens for governments, especially in developing countries and individuals.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and WHO, all work together to support countries to follow through on the aims of the Marrakech Declaration by providing a wealth of expertise in either climate, health or environmental issues.
WHO has worked on climate change and health for over 25 years and has developed a comprehensive approach to supporting countries to assess the cumulative effect of climate variability and manage the health impacts posed by climate change. Their aim is to strengthen national capacities and improve the resilience and adaptive capacities of health systems to deal with the adverse health effects of human-induced climate change.
WMO, through national meteorological agencies and their network of ground and remote-sensing stations, provides the essential data on climate and air quality conditions and facilitates the delivery of related weather and climate services. UNEP works with member-States’ Ministries of Environment and other key policymakers to help prevent and reverse environmental degradation, thereby supporting individuals and communities. WHO, with national Health Ministries, monitors and assesses health exposures and health impacts as well as provides guidance on how to reduce them.
The climate crisis is the single biggest health threat facing humanity today. It threatens to undo the previous 50 years of progress in development, global health and poverty reduction, and to widen the existing health inequalities further.
It severely jeopardises the realisation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in various ways; including by compounding the existing burden of disease and by exacerbating existing barriers to accessing health services, often at the times when they are most needed.
Climate change impacts health both directly and indirectly, and is strongly mediated by environmental, social and public health determinants. While no-one is safe from the risks of climate change, it is acknowledged that the people whose health is harmed, first and worst, by the crises are those who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it — people in low-income and disadvantaged countries and communities.
Zimbabwe is a classic example of the latter. Currently, over 930 million people — around 12 percent of the world’s population — spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets to pay for healthcare. With the poorest people largely uninsured, health shocks and stresses drive about 100 million people into poverty every year.
The impacts of climate change will unequivocally worsen this trend if urgent action is not taken while we still can – Yes we can!
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant and is a published author in her field. For comments e-mail to:linamanucci@gmail.com
