{"id":144565,"date":"2025-11-21T02:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/144565\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T02:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:07:16","slug":"cop30-climate-crisis-is-a-health-crisis-who-warns-as-philanthropies-pledge-300m-for-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/144565\/","title":{"rendered":"COP30: Climate crisis is a health crisis, WHO warns as philanthropies pledge $300m for solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The special report on health and climate change<\/a>, published by the UN World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>) and the Brazilian Government, warns that one in 12 hospitals could face climate-related shutdowns. It calls for urgent action to protect health systems in a rapidly warming world.<\/p>\n

This follows Thursday\u2019s launch of the Bel\u00e9m Health Action Plan<\/a>, a flagship COP30 initiative putting health at the centre of climate policy.<\/p>\n

What the WHO says<\/p>\n

\u201cThe climate crisis is a health crisis \u2013 not in the distant future, but here and now,\u201d said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis special report provides evidence on the impact of climate change on individuals and health systems, and real-world examples of what countries can do \u2013 and are doing \u2013 to protect health and strengthen health systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/p>\n

Global temperatures are already above 1.5\u00b0C. The report finds that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in areas highly vulnerable to climate impacts, while hospitals face a 41 per cent higher risk of damage from extreme weather compared to 1990.<\/p>\n

Without rapid decarbonisation, the number of health facilities at risk could double by mid-century. The health sector itself contributes around 5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the need for a swift transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient systems.<\/p>\n

Key gaps in health adaptation<\/p>\n

The report highlights stark gaps in health adaptation planning:<\/p>\n

Only 54 per cent of national health adaptation plans assess risks to health facilities.Fewer than 30 per cent consider income disparities.Just 20 per cent take gender into account.Less than 1 per cent include people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Progress has been made \u2013 the number of countries with multi-hazard early warning systems doubled between 2015 and 2023 \u2013 but coverage remains uneven, especially in least developed countries and small island states.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s being done<\/p>\n

Adding momentum, a coalition of more than 35 philanthropies today pledged $300 million to accelerate solutions at the intersection of climate and health.<\/p>\n

The Climate and Health Funders Coalition \u2013 which includes Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome \u2013 will back innovations, policies and research on extreme heat, air pollution and climate-sensitive diseases, as well as strengthen health systems and data integration. Find out more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The coalition\u2019s inaugural funding effort supports the Bel\u00e9m Health Action Plan and aims to deliver \u201cno-regret\u201d interventions that save lives now. With the past decade the hottest on record and temperatures set to remain near historic highs, experts warn that failure to act risks catastrophic consequences for human health.<\/p>\n

\u2018Adaptation is urgent\u2019: COP30 health envoy calls for action<\/p>\n

UN News spoke with Ethel Maciel, COP30\u2019s special envoy for health and one of the architects of the Bel\u00e9m Health Action Plan. She stressed that climate change is no longer a distant threat \u2013 it is reshaping health systems now.<\/p>\n

\"Participants<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, how do we prepare our health units, our hospitals, our structures for these extreme events that will happen with increasing frequency? And how can we provide training and capacity-building for health professionals so that they can face these extreme events that will be caused by what we are already experiencing in these climate changes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne example here in Brazil, was last year\u2019s flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, [which triggered] the largest dengue epidemic in history, driven by these climate changes. So, it is not something for us to think about in the future; it\u2019s happening now. So, thinking about how to adapt our system is urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Maciel outlined three pillars of the plan:<\/p>\n

Monitoring to integrate climate and health data, enabling forecasts of heat-related health demand and better reporting of climate-linked cases.Resilient systems and training so health professionals can identify and treat impacts such as dehydration or cardiac stress.Research and innovation to develop heat-resistant medicines and vaccines, cut pollution in health supply chains, and expand renewable energy use.<\/p>\n

She warned that implementation is critical in the Amazon, where deforestation could unleash unknown pathogens. \u201cWe have \u2026 pathogens that we do not yet even fully [understand],\u201d she said, urging leaders to ensure the plan \u201cdoes not become just another paper and another very beautiful declaration, but that does not happen in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

UN News\u202fis\u202freporting from Bel\u00e9m<\/a>, bringing you front-row coverage of everything unfolding at COP30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The special report on health and climate change, published by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-144565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}