GOAL 3 : GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING

Good health is often a requisite to non-interrupted education. Many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are forced to abandon their education due to health problems related to malnutrition. This is an unfortunate vicious cycle because better educated people are much less vulnerable to health risks. Furthermore, behavior-change based education programs are effective in addressing the risks associated with nutrition and disease. When mothers in particular are educated, even at the most primary level, they are more likely to be well informed about various diseases and take steps to prevent them. Four million child deaths have been prevented over the past four decades thanks to the global increase in women’s education. Each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by as much as 10% and a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past age five. Increasing investment in family planning and other maternal and child-health programs can empower families to lead healthier lifestyles. Sanitation and hygiene are critical to survival in many areas of the world, and there have been community mobilization efforts to teach citizens how to access credit and materials to build sanitation facilities. Employing and training marginalized people as masons and bricklayers, for example, helps build safe and hygienic toilets while promoting economic growth. And education and training of medical professionals are also essential for building effective health systems.

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality, but working towards achieving the target of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030 would require improvements in skilled delivery care. Achieving the target of reducing premature deaths due to incommunicable diseases by 1/3 by the year 2030 would also require more efficient technologies for clean fuel use during cooking and education on the risks of tobacco. Many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues. By focusing on providing more efficient funding of health systems, improved sanitation and hygiene, increased access to physicians and more tips on ways to reduce ambient pollution, significant progress can be made in helping to save the lives of millions.’

Environmental Health and Climate Change

Air pollution and climate change are having a serious impact on global health

Nearly one quarter of all global deaths are a result of the environment, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2016 report Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments: A Global Assessment of the Burden of Disease from Environmental Risks. One of the greatest environmental threats to human health is air pollution. Many low- and middle-income countries do not monitor air quality, and either lack effective emission control legislation or simply fail to enforce legislation. As a result, their populations face a disproportionate disease burden. In addition to outdoor exposure to air pollution, WHO estimated in 2016 that almost 3 billion people around the world were still burning biomass fuel and coal indoors, in order to cook or to heat their homes, which resulted in more than 4 million deaths annually. In 2018, WHO estimated that more than 80% of people living in urban areas (that monitor air pollution) are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the organization’s limits – and that 97% of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines (the figure falls to 49% for high-income countries).

Air pollution is also a primary contributor to climate change, which has generated global health risks including changes in vector-borne disease patterns, water scarcity, food insecurity, and violence. These threats are most severe for vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, and the poor. Additional measures are needed in order to reduce exposure to air pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change, and decrease disease rates and mortality. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Agreement on climate change, have recognized this need and provide goals and targets in order to prioritize action (though one of the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions and pollution, the US, has announced plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement). New and expanding research disciplines, including Planetary Health (which takes into consideration all the natural systems that human health depends upon) and the collaborative approach known as One Health, have drawn increased focus to the complex, interconnected relationships between the earth’s natural systems and species. These approaches recognize that the health of humans, animals, and the environment are closely interrelated, and promise to broadly advance our understanding of environmental impacts.

Today 3rd December 2023 marks the first ever Health Day in a COP program, underscoring a growing recognition of the intersection between climate change and human health. Research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC) showsthat up to 3.6 billion people already live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change. The same report shows that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, including from undernutrition, malaria, and heat stress.

Adaptation to climate change is increasingly becoming critical in discussions on health—especially given the health effects of climate change are likely to be felt more severely in emerging economies. Pressure on health systems is rapidly growing, with 27 percent of surveyed cities in a Lancet report declaring concerns that their health systems might be overwhelmed by climate change impacts.

Healthcare value chains are estimated to account for around 5 percent of global carbon emissions, and a recent report by Unitaid found that a critical action for the sector is to better measure and reduce emissions from drug manufacturing and use.

News and announcements

In the first action of its kind at a COP, 123 countries signed the UAE Climate and Health Declaration to “place health at the heart of climate action” and support the development of climate-resilient, sustainable, and equitable health systems. The declaration demonstrates widespread recognition of the centrality of health in the climate agenda, and includes commitments to act, including through the systematic inclusion of health in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The active participation of health ministers, alongside environment and finance ministers, in climate policy is seen as providing a platform for continued acceleration of action on health at future COPs. This also encourages organizations to consider health as a key part of their own adaptation planning.

$1 billion in new financing commitments for climate and health were announced by philanthropies, donors, and multilateral development bank (MDBs). This will have a catalytic effect on the pace of action in the field, which now receives less than 0.5 percent of multilateral climate finance, scaling the implementation of solutions to climate-sensitive diseases and health risks from extreme events. Over time, this could lead to the climate-proofing of MDB health portfolios worth tens of billions of dollars—creating opportunities for solution providers, innovators, and investors. Furthermore, these funders and partners have endorsed nine new guiding principles for financing climate and health solutions—addressing concerns related to health- or climate-“washing”.

74 countries and 40 international organizations endorsed the UAE Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace, committing to increasing investment in communities affected by conflict—which are three times more likely to face extreme weather and receive up to 80 times less climate finance.

Another adaptation and inclusion linked development today was the showcasing of the COP28 & SME Climate Hub for MENA, which McKinsey supports. Only around 8% of SMEs globally have a Net Zero 2050 target, and thisnew Arabic platform for the region aims to support SME’s climate action. It includes resources and tools to help SMEs make a net-zero commitment, calculate their emissions baseline, and measure their progress toward emissions reduction. Given SMEs are estimated to make up over 90 percent of all businesses globally, and the COP28 outreach campaign has already touched 25,000+ SMEs in MENA, is there potential for this type of SME-focused initiative to scale globally at future COPs?

GOAL 3 : GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING

GOAL 3 : GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING

Environmental Health and Climate Change

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