Jonathan Patz Reflects on COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the Inaugural Health Day
Nova Tebbe, PhD Student, and Jonathan Patz at COP28 in Dubai, UAE.
COP28 featured first-ever Health Day addressing the major health impacts from climate change
Article Author: Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH
This year COP28, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other main partners, organized the first-ever Health day on December 3, 2023. I have researched climate change health effects for nearly 30 years and believe that both COP28 and Health Day was an opportunity to shed light on the intersection of climate change and health. Participants included climate and health professionals, civil society organizations, ministers, youth representatives and business. Health Day had one major objective: to bring the climate-health agenda into the mainstream and help others understand the health challenges many around the world are already experiencing.
Health Day focused on 5 key topics:
Showcasing evidence base and clear impact pathways between climate change and human health
Promoting "health arguments for climate action" and health co-benefits of mitigation
Highlighting needs, barriers and best practices for strengthening climate resilience of health systems
Identifying and scaling adaptation measures to address the impacts of climate change on human health (including through One Health)
Taking action at the nexus of health and relief, recovery and peace.
“Health Day focused on the huge health improvement opportunities possible by moving away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources.”
Climate and health conferences
I recently attended a climate & health conference in Kathmandu and was able to visit mountain villages and see first-hand how intensifying rainfall extremes has caused damaging landslides with disruption in water systems and new increases in diarrheal diseases.
For those of us who work in this area, we are aware of the concerns about melting mountain glaciers and threats to water availability for agriculture and hydropower. The COP28 Health Day highlighted other concerning threats, including climate change’s risks to human health through water quality, air quality and temperature effects on biological systems (especially mosquito-borne infectious diseases).
While I was in Kathmandu, officials announced that the dengue fever virus is now in all 77 districts in Nepal. As temperatures warm, mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria are occurring at higher elevations around the world.
Air pollution impact on health is also a special concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides evidence of links between exposure to air pollution and type 2 diabetes, obesity, systemic inflammation, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified air pollution, in particular PM2.5, as a leading cause of cancer. A recent global review found that chronic exposure can affect every organ in the body, complicating and exacerbating existing health conditions.
Live from Dubai
Jonathan Patz and Nova Tebbe were two guests on a Wisconsin Academy and Nelson Institute Sponsored Q & A about their experience at COP28.
How does burning less fossil fuel benefit our health?
Health Day focused on the huge health improvement opportunities possible by moving away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. Here are just a few benefits that will result from decarbonization:
Phasing out fossil fuels globally, will save over 5 million lives per year, according to a new study released last week. Despite repeated government pledges to cut back on fossil fuel subsidies, a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) looked at both explicit and implicit subsidies for fossil fuels across 170 countries. It found explicit subsidies alone have more than doubled since the previous IMF assessment, rising from $500 billion in 2020 to $1.3 trillion in 2022.
According to a recent study of just nine countries, mitigation in the energy, food and agriculture, and transport sectors in line with the Paris Agreement would avoid 1.18 million, 5.86 million, and 1.15 million deaths through improved air quality, healthier diets, and increased physical activity respectively each year by 2040. These reductions in risk factors will lead to decreased burdens of disease, specifically cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. Nature-based solutions offer physical and mental health benefits, and resilient water and sanitation systems ensure safe and adequate drinking water and hygiene.
Health and equity are inextricably linked. As climate change severely impacts human health, it also worsens and exacerbates inequities in all societies. This leads low-income, excluded, and marginalized communities to suffer the negative health impacts of climate change much more severely than other social groups.
Renewable energy jobs outnumber fossil-fuel related jobs and promote more localized employment opportunities that advances health and well-being.
After a one-year dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels hit a new high of 37.2 billion tons last year. But one of the few bright spots heading into COP28 is that rates of renewable energy generation are surging, and many energy experts now consider the transition away from fossil fuels all but inevitable.
As leaders gathered in Dubai and participated in the first-ever Health Day this year, I am optimistic that it elevated the conversation about the connection regarding climate change impact on human health and experts provided real-world solutions to move us all closer to decarbonization. This could be a win-win to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve human population health.