The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and various charitable organisations have offered $777 million to combat neglected tropical diseases in developing countries, which are anticipated to escalate with rising temperatures.
This significant development and financial boost happened at the United Nations climate summit.
COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber underscored the gravity of climate-related health threats, stating that these climate-related factors,
- “have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century.”
This announcement took place during the COP28 summit, where a spotlight was placed on climate-related health risks.
The funding
Major contributors to the funding include the UAE, pledging $100 million, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, committing an additional $100 million.
Belgium, Germany, and the U.S. Agency for International Development also joined the initiative by announcing funds for climate-related health issues.
The World Bank responded by launching a program aimed at exploring potential support measures for public health in developing countries, where climate-related health risks pose a particularly significant challenge.
What you should know
As the world warms, the burden of tropical diseases, along with other climate-driven health threats such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress, is expected to intensify.
Diseases like river blindness and sleeping sickness, endemic to Africa, are already easy to treat but may become more prevalent in a warming world.
While over 120 countries signed a COP28 declaration acknowledging their responsibility to safeguard people amidst global warming, critics pointed out a “glaring omission” – the declaration made no mention of fossil fuels, the primary source of climate-warming emissions.
Activists, including physicians, staged a small demonstration within the COP28 compound to raise awareness of this issue.
Climate change is manifesting real-world impacts, as recounted by Joseph Vipond, an emergency physician from Alberta, Canada, who highlighted a child’s tragic death from an asthma attack exacerbated by smoke from record wildfires in Western Canada.
Climate change’s broader impacts, such as increased frequency of dangerous storms and erratic rainfall, were highlighted by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Gates emphasized ongoing efforts to develop new treatments for mosquito-spread malaria, while Clinton urged reform in the world’s insurance system as a critical measure to ensure people’s safety, given the withdrawal of insurance companies from vulnerable areas.
Why it matters
According to a Climate Change Report by the United Nations, Nigeria’s more than 830 kilometres of coastline are increasingly threatened by floods, erosion, water and air pollution. At risk of flooding are 372 out of the country’s 744 local government areas.
In 2022 alone, flooding killed at least 662 people, injured 3,174, displaced about 2.5 million, and destroyed 200,000 houses individuals.
Communities in the Niger Delta states bordering the Atlantic Ocean have lost or fear losing their homes and farmlands due to the eroding bedrock shielding the shoreline.
Forests are disappearing because of desertification. According to Action Against Desertification, only half the forests that existed in 2007 remain in the area where it operates.
