For the first in our series of COP28 debates, we discussed why extreme weather events are on the rise, and how the climate crisis is impacting global health.
The impact of heat waves on individuals and global communities is immense and only getting worse. Extreme weather events are causing illness and death, while heat waves are reducing productivity, damaging crops, and increasing the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.
Air pollution is affecting global health too, with respiratory and cardiovascular problems brought about by wildfires and the burning of fossil fuels.
With the link between the climate crisis and global health becoming ever clearer, this year’s COP28 summit is committed to shining a light on global health. On December 3 the summit held its first ever “Healthy Day” and over 120 countries signed a Climate and Health Declaration, which committed them to building more climate resilient health systems and including health targets in their climate action plans.
With so much at stake, for our first COP28 Climate Now debate we asked our expert panel: how can we survive the heatwaves to come?
You can watch the debate, which took place live Dubai on the sidelines of COP28, in the video player at the top of this article.
Our panellists were:
Dr Carlo Buontempo, Director, Copernicus Climate Change Service
Dr Marina Romanello, Executive Director, The Lancet Countdown
Dr Maria Guevara, International Medical Secretary, of Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders
Jeremy Wilks (Moderator)
Why is health the hot topic at COP28?
With over 50 ministers of health at COP28, this is the first time that the link between climate change and the global health crisis has been taken so seriously at the event. And there is solid reasoning behind this new approach, as Dr Marina Romanello, Executive Director of The Lancet Countdown, an international collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, explained.
“Things are getting worse very rapidly. To give you just a couple of figures, heat related mortality of adults over 65 years of age, a vulnerable age group, has increased by 85 per cent since the 1990s alone.”
The link between food and health is also gaining traction, and Dr Marina added that “127 million more people are now food insecure…because of the increased incidences of heatwaves and droughts”.
Dr Maria Guevara, International Medical Secretary, of Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders has also seen this in her own work.
“We’re seeing doubling and tripling of severe and acute malnutrition cases, especially in the Sub-Saharan region,” she said.
While deaths from extreme heat and malnutrition may seem like separate incidents though, Dr Marina Romanello was keen to stress the link between them.
“The most concerning thing is that we are monitoring these things in isolation, but we operate in a complex system, so we’re being exposed to all of these different hazards in parallel, adding enormous pressure to our health systems.”
How can we prepare for extreme heat?
“The climate is now changing at such a rate that we cannot assume that the risks of the past are a good proxy for the risks we are going to face,” said Dr Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“We have a lot of data, good quality data, about the climate of the past, the present and the future, but this data needs to be contextualised.”
ADVERTISEMENTIn order to help governments do precisely this, Copernicus have created the Copernicus Health Hub, which provides scientists and policymakers with environmental data sets that are pertinent to health and can help them plan for future events.
Early warning systems are another vital tool when it comes to protecting vulnerable communities.
“Early warning systems are frequently found and we have them in many countries. The thing that is a bit more challenging is the early response system that comes after it,” explained Dr Marina Romanello.
“What are the interventions that work best? In the case of a heatwave, how do you best reach the vulnerable communities, who are generally socially isolated?”
She went on to share an example from the UK heatwave of 2022, when the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) issued its very first red alert. Thanks to this direct communication, heat-related mortality was reduced when compared to expected models.
ADVERTISEMENTThe health impacts of working in extreme heat
While data sets and early warning systems can help governments to prepare for extreme heat events, the panel had some advice for how individuals and agricultural workers can look after themselves too.
“The important thing to take into account is that we are not all equally vulnerable to extreme heat exposure,” said Dr Marina Romanello.
“If you’re above 65 years of age, or a very young child under one year of age, or living with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease or kidney disease, then you will be very vulnerable to extreme heat exposure.”
In such cases, simple behavioural changes are often the first place to start. Dr Marina suggested putting the blinds down in the day, staying hydrated and wearing lighter clothes. “These are all things that we’ve all heard of, but surprisingly they’re not done enough,” she said.
But what about workers who have to be outside in the middle of the day?
ADVERTISEMENTAgricultural workers are the group most affected by extreme heat. According to the Lancet Countdown, in 2022, heat exposure-related loss of labor capacity resulted in average potential income losses equivalent to $863 billion (€789 billion).
This is only projected to get worse and by mid-century, if temperatures rise 2°C above pre-industrial levels then heat-related deaths are set to rise by 370 per cent, while heat-related labour loss is likely to increase by 50 per cent.
While hotter weather means that workers will have to take more breaks, Dr Marina believes that the only way to ensure that bosses factor these breaks in, is through regulation.
“You have to regulate it, you have to enforce it. It is a hazard for workers,” she said.
“Above everything you need to address the communities directly, help them with change, make sure they have access to shading and cooling and cold water, and help them to protect their health above everything else.”
ADVERTISEMENTDr Maria Guevara agreed. “Healthy should be the new normal. It needs to be in all our documents and negotiations. The communities most affected need to get the financial support that they need and the ultimate cure is obviously phasing out fossil fuels.”
Would phasing out fossil fuels have a big impact on health?
“Fossil fuel phase out is the most important public health intervention of our times,” said Dr Marina Romanello.
“By phasing out fossil fuels, we could, our estimates suggest, prevent 1.2 million deaths from outdoor air pollution alone. And a recent estimate suggests it could be up to 5 million deaths and that’s every year.”
Dr Carlo Buontempo agreed. “This is not new – we have known about the connection between greenhouse gases and climate change since the end of the 19th century. This year the concentration of CO2 has gone up by 2 parts per million.”
“If we want to limit the impact, then the mechanism we have at hand is to meet net zero as soon as possible.”
ADVERTISEMENTWhile drastically reducing fossil fuel emissions may seem daunting, the reduction of coal-derived pollution in the 21st century shows that changes can be made quickly. According to the Lancet Countdown, deaths attributable to fossil-fuel-derived air pollution have decreased by 17.7 per cent since 2005 due to a fall in coal burning.
How can we adapt and limit the health risks?
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) believes the best way to protect people from extreme weather events is to prepare communities through health promotion. In practice, this means providing communities with areas of shelter so they can cool down, and putting in place more early warning systems so that people are warned of incoming storms and extreme weather.
Dr Maria Guevara explained how Medecins Sans Frontieres are trying to adapt to changing weather patterns.
“Next year we’re going to do climate scenarios to imagine what does 2 degrees look like? What does 4 degrees look like?” she said.
“For example, we cannot keep using plastic sheeting in camp situations, it’s like an oven, so there needs to be innovation int how we keep the air flow moving.
ADVERTISEMENT“IKEA have been working with UNHCR on building structures that are much more eco-friendly and much more adapted to the field settings that we’re going to see in the future.”
Cities need to adapt too, said Dr Carlo Buontempo. “Cities, as a concept, have never seen temperatures of this size, so the way in which a cities work is not designed to cope with these kinds of temperatures. This is uncharted territory.”
Computer modelling and AI may be able to provide a helping hand here though. The UN Environment Programme estimates that the simple act of planting trees on city streets would give 77 million people a 1°C temperature reprieve on hot days.
While the panel all stressed that there was much urgent work to be done, Dr Carlo was keen to stress that there is still hope.
“The future is not unknown, we do have information, we are not blind in terms of the changes that are coming. So for me, we need to use the data we have to inform decisions.
ADVERTISEMENT“The future will be different, it will be very different to anything we have seen, and we should be able to improve our ability to use the knowledge that already exists.”
To watch the debate in full, head to the Euronews YouTube Channel or via the video player at the top of the page.
Source: Euro News
