In what is being called a “breakthrough moment” for health in climate talks, today, the COP28 presidency, the World Health Organization and the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention, announced a new ‘COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health’ (the Declaration)
The Declaration, announced at the World Climate Action Summit, is aimed at accelerating actions to protect people’s health from growing climate impacts and has been signed by 123 countries.
Developed with the support of a number of ‘country champions’ including Brazil, Malawi, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Kenya, Fiji, India, Egypt, Sierra Leone, and Germany, the Declaration covers building more climate-resilient health systems, strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration to reduce emissions, maximising the health benefits of climate action, and increasing finance for climate and health solutions.
Further, the COP28 Presidency, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Green Climate Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Health Organization announced the COP28 Guiding Principles for Financing Climate and Health Solutions. These ten principles are centred on:
- Accelerating transformative climate and health solutions
- Creating equitable, inclusive, accessible, and holistic approaches to climate and health financing and solutions;
- Building the core policymaking and implementation capacities of countries, communities, and financing institutions to deliver climate and health solutions.
Speaking on the climate health principles, Mafalda Duarte – Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, said: “These Guiding Principles come at a pivotal moment in our fight against climate change. By creating and implementing this holistic and more equitable framework, we will find whole-of-economy benefits for prioritizing health in climate financing.”