At the just concluded Grand Challenges Annual Meeting (GCAM2023) that was held in Dakar, Senegal, experts not only lauded the Conference of Parties (COP28) Presidency for setting aside a special day for health but also asked for the inclusion of health in the COP process by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) as a working group that is financed.
This came during a panel discussion moderated by Dr Alan Dangour, the director of Climate and Health at Wellcome in the UK who moderated a discussion titled Climate-Health Crisis: Innovation for Adaptation.
Dr Alan described the special day set aside for health at the upcoming world biggest climate summit (COP28) that will be held in Dubai as from November this year as the biggest innovation of our time.
“There is an innovation coming up and it’s a massive innovation of huge importance, this year at COP28, the biggest climate change meeting in Dubai we will have a health day for the first time ever.
It’s huge and now we must get it to work,” Dr Alan highlighted while moderating the panel featuring Professor George Gao from the Institute of Microbiology in China, Alaa Murabit, the director of global policy, advocacy and communications(health) at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as Desta Lakew, the group director of partnerships and external affairs at Amref Health Africa, Kenya.
On what the COP needs to deliver, Professor Gao asked everyone to think about what happened during the COvid-19 pandemic.
“Think about the masks we disposed during the pandemic, now they are in the sea with the mammals, the mammals have so many masks because we have contaminated the sea and now we need the COP to prioritize for help.”
For Alaa, climate change is the most existential threat on the planet and human health is the face of it.
“My one hope for COP is that A, we just don’t talk to ourselves, we bring people in from the communities most impacted and amplify those voices to ensure that they are architecting the solutions to their own challenges and C, it doesn’t feel like it is a separate day, everyone should say that this is an intersection that is critical and will cost us too much if we ignore and avoid and from then it won’t be a onetime thing,”
Desta said that she agrees with Alaa but with one addition.
“Great start, I think it’s an excellent innovation but what I would like to see coming out of it is that at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) there is a decision to include health as a working group that is financed, that is the only way any changes on the health side will take effect.”
According to Dr Alan, the critical thing the world has to ensure is that it’s not the first and last health day at COP.
“We must ensure that it’s fully embedded in the COP process moving forward, that would make my heart sink because our strategy at Wellcome is to put health at the heart of climate action and so to put health in every single climate policy going forward will ensure that the human impact of climate change is recognized.”
Dexta further highlighted a new regional initiative in Africa to address climate change on the continent.
“What we realized was that the ministers of health despite this big challenges happening are not involved and do not have the language, specifically finance language.
Climate has been about pollution, emissions and other big things but not health, we realized we need to bring them together and engage the Africa Group of Negotiators(AGN) because those are the voices that count when you go to COP, to UNFCCC to negotiate and we need to have a common position for Africa that yes includes emissions but prioritizes adaptation as well as loss and damage,” She disclosed.
“We as Amref Health Africa put together a team that was hosted by the government of Malawi, Pan African Climate Justice, AGN and World Health Organisation(WHO-AFFRO) and came up an African position which says that here are four things which we need to focus on because our voices need to be heard.
We now need to look at our health ministers and provide technical assistance to ensure that they are present in the big meetings, that they are aligned on the language and the priorities that are needed and so we have developed that common position with a number of partners.”
She reminds that health was not really prioritized during the Africa Climate Summit(ACS) in Kenya.
“Unfortunately for us during ACS, health was not prioritized but we are going to go to COP m socialize with minsters of health and make sure adaptation finance is included.”
“ACS is an innovation, a united voice from Africa on seeking the narrative and a pathway to a future that protects health in the face of climate change.
Many innovations are stuck in medical laboratories, medical journals and haven’t reached the communities that are in dire need, what are some of the ways we can get them to these communities? Dr Alan posed.
“I think we need more data, to know what are the pressing issues, to make an investment case, more resources and to be tactical and surgical as well as more advocacy.
We need to anchor this on people’s humanity,” Alaa said.
“A great philosopher once said that the lesson we learn as humans is that we never learn lessons from history.
To innovate, we need more education and to tell the truth,” professor Gao said