Your Excellency, former president and NGIC co-chair, Vaira Vike-Freiberga,
Director-Common Tatiana Valovaya,
Secretary-Common Rebeca Grynspan,
Secretary Common Doreen Bogdan-Martin,
Your Excellency former president Tarja Halonen,
Honourable Minister and COP29 President, Mukhtar Babayev,
Excellencies, expensive colleagues and pals,
I thank the Nizami Ganjavi Worldwide Middle for convening this essential dialogue, and Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency for making well being a precedence.
From the droughts in East Africa and Central America, to the floods in South Asia, to the wildfires and fireplace tornadoes in Australia and Los Angeles, the local weather disaster is upon us.
It’s right here, now. Not a hypothetical prediction for the longer term, however apocalyptic destruction that destroys lives and livelihoods, properties and households, societies, economies, and naturally, well being.
We should act, and we should act now.
Addressing the inter-relationship between well being and local weather motion is essential.
COP29 was a major milestone, as leaders made long-term commitments to translate previous commitments on climate-health initiatives into motion.
To make sure well being stays a precedence in future local weather talks, the COP29 Presidency, in partnership with WHO, launched the Baku COP Presidencies Continuity Coalition for Local weather and Well being.
The Coalition’s goal is to convey coherence to local weather and well being initiatives, mobilize funding, and push for follow-through on current commitments.
On the similar time, the WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Motion on Local weather and Well being, or ATACH, is making progress in efforts to implement local weather actions within the well being sector.
ATACH is co-convened by the UK, Egypt, and UAE and Azerbaijan.
Greater than 90 nations and 75 accomplice organizations have joined ATACH, committing to constructing climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable well being techniques.
The WHO COP29 report lays out why well being is the argument for local weather motion for folks, place and planet.
First, local weather motion might help to unlock human improvement.
We should prioritize fairness, human rights, and a simply transition so that everybody receives long-term advantages from local weather motion.
Individuals could be supported by way of funding in low-carbon climate- resilient well being techniques and a fit-for-purpose, well-supported world well being workforce.
Particularly, well being techniques should be made extra resilient to local weather dangers, and extra sustainable to scale back greenhouse fuel – healthcare is at present answerable for roughly 5% of worldwide emissions.
WHO, nations, and our companions are supporting motion on this by way of ATACH.
Second, the locations we reside form well being.
Co-benefits of local weather motion could be realized by way of environmental stewardship for well being, in each cities and the pure world.
These actions embrace clear vitality, zero-emissions transport, infrastructure design, and defending and restoring pure techniques so basic to wholesome lives, meals techniques and livelihoods.
Third, we should remodel monetary techniques away from extraction and in direction of well-being to actually unlock well being co-benefits whereas delivering financial returns.
Essential to that is daring governance that features the wants and voices of most impacted communities, together with kids.
Army spending final yr was a staggering 2.4 trillion US {dollars}. What we’re asking for local weather well being motion is a rounding error compared.
The worldwide scale-up of simply 5 climate-health intervention packages mixed is estimated to save lots of 1.9 million lives per yr.
Thanks all in your dedication to defending and selling the well being of each folks and the planet.
I thanks.
