High-Level event on Health and Climate Change – COP29

I am honored to join you today at this high-level event.

I commend the World Health Organization and its partners for leading this conversation and for delivering the COP29 Special Report on Climate Change and Health.

It is increasingly clear that climate change is also a health crisis.

Climate change, including extreme weather events, is deeply affecting our public health and well-being; from food insecurity and water scarcity to communicable and non-communicable diseases. The impact is clear.

This is a crisis that is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations, who are both more prone to climate impacts and have less capacity to adapt.

In fact, it is these same populations that succumb to the limitations of their national health systems.

It is therefore equally clear that we need a health-centered response to climate change, one that recognizes the relationship between climate and health, and that helps to boost adaptation and build resilience, both for the environment and for health systems.

This is key to safeguarding public health, enhancing health equity, and ensuring the resilience and sustainability of health systems.

A health centered approach also has the capacity to unlock a wealth of other benefits, furthering efforts to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics, tackle communicable and non-communicable diseases, and work towards universal health coverage, particularly in developing countries.

It is not an unreachable target; it just needs political will.

The health impact of climate change in Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States is particularly grave.

Just this year record floods in Africa have inundated health centers and destroyed critical infrastructure, as well as obstructed access roads.

We have seen a similar impact in the Caribbean, due to hurricanes and in South Asia, due to floods.

Financing, which is urgently needed for social systems, are being consumed by the need to chronically address climate impacts.

Moreover, it is those most affected who are often the last to benefit from the latest and best innovations for health AND climate action.

As one example, health records cannot be lost forever to a flood, when digital systems are increasingly the norm worldwide.

In this regard, we need to close this very specific element of the digital divide and infuse it with an eye to building resilience.

This discussion should be a reminder that climate action and the entirety of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development go hand-in-hand.

Indeed, achieving SDG 3 on health and well-being requires efforts to boost climate action, strengthen access to sustainable and modern energy, and ensure resilient, sustainable infrastructure.

The Pact for the Future, recently adopted, can serve as a crucial framework to ensure that health, climate action, and sustainable development are aligned and advanced, together.

Let us use the platform of COP29 to champion health-centered climate action, acknowledging that the health of our planet and the health of its people are inseparable.

Let us leave a legacy to benefit future generations.

Thank you.

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