BELÉM, Brazil, November 17 (IPS) – With the COP30 Presidency prioritizing health at the United Nations climate summit in Belém, African leaders are calling for finance to be channeled towards improving the health systems of developing countries.
Though Africa contributes few emissions that cause global warming, climate disasters like droughts and floods have become more frequent than ever in recent years.
The average global temperature in 2024 was between 1.34 degrees Celsius and 1.41 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Droughts have brought food insecurity, causing a rise in diseases like malnutrition, while tropical rains amid warm temperatures have brought infectious diseases, such as dengue, malaria and the West Nile virus.
This is piling pressure on most of Africa’s collapsing health systems.
African countries are losing up to 5 percent of their gross domestic product on average, with many of them forced to allocate 9% of their budgets to deal with climate extremes, according to WMO.
African nations have applauded the launch of the Belém Health Action Plan on November 13, praising its progressive nature.
The Belém Health Action Plan, which is the first international climate adaptation document dedicated specifically to health, aims to support the health sector’s adaptation to climate change.
The plan, which is expected to be endorsed at COP30 in Belém, the capital of Pará in northern Brazil, outlines actions for countries to address the already tangible impacts of climate change in climate-hit nations, including in Africa.
Carlos Lopes, Special Envoy for Africa, COP30 Presidency, said he wants to see more action. “This is a COP of implementation. I do not want to see more texts that pile up on promises. But what we need is to detail what has already been promised,” he told IPS in Belém, a city of 1.3 million people. “I want much more emphasis on adaptation because we have been too much occupied in mitigation, which is fine.”
He said it is not about replacing mitigation with adaptation but about rebalancing the discussion—as COP30 has to do both. “Because adaptation has been a poor parent, we have to give it more weight. And when you ask for it, you will include health,” Lopes said.
Oden Ewa, Commissioner for Special Duties, Intergovernmental Relations and Green Economy Lead, Nigeria, says he is concerned that, despite awareness that health and climate change are inextricably linked, Africa still receives only a small fraction of adaptation finance for health.
He said Nigeria is facing an additional 21 percent disease burden due to climate change from exposure to both extreme heat and heavy rainfall, yet the adaptation finance received between 2021 and 2022 only met 6 percentof the West African country’s needs.
“Adaptation finance is a lifeline: it saves lives, it strengthens communities and it protects economies,” said Ewa at a press conference in Belem, a gateway to the Amazon. “In light of this, I call for the world to develop a just finance plan for Africa and to create a Sustainable Finance Desk, especially at the UNFCCC, to further highlight the finance gaps we are trying to mitigate against.”
Each year, more than half a million lives are lost due to heat, and over 150,000 deaths are linked to wildfire smoke exposure, according to Dr. Marina Romanello, Lancet Countdown‘s Executive Director, Institute for Global Health, University College London.
Only 4 percent of multilateral climate adaptation funding between 2019-2023 was allocated to health, according to the UN Environmental Programme Adaptation Gap Report.
Out of all multilateral climate finance, only 0.5% goes to health, health being critically threatened by climate change, shows a report from adelphi, an independent think tank for climate, environment, and development based in Berlin.
Experts say health systems in Africa, which are already stretched and underfunded, are not prepared for the climate disasters coming. They are currently struggling to cope with the increasing pressure from climate impacts.
Lopes said there is no discussion about development without climate.
He said it does not make sense to discuss climate change from a scientific view alone without taking into account development dimensions, including social and human, which are critical. “When you marry the two and finally accept that we are talking about the same health, it becomes quite topical,” Lopes said.
He said there can be a discussion of extreme weather events and a lot of focus on the economic dimensions, but in fact, the health impacts are equally important.
“We are seeing an acceleration of the phenomena that we used to call extreme weather. Now it is no longer extreme because it happens every other cycle. It is becoming recurrent,” Lopes said. “That is really quite a change because it affects health significantly, particularly the food security implications of health, but others too: diseases.”
He said the climate summit should start giving much more attention to adaptation in its various forms, including health.
Across the world, millions of people are dying from climate change-related events like extreme heat, extreme rainfall and flooding, ever more vicious storms and creeping desertification, according to the Lancet Countdown Report published in October.
To support the Belém Health Action Plan, the Climate and Health Funders Coalition was launched, with philanthropists committing an initial USD 300m to the fund to strengthen health systems struggling with the effects of climate change.
Norway Harris, a programs coordinator at ActionAid Liberia, says she welcomes the launch and their commitment of USD 300m annually to address the escalating climate and health crisis experienced by the global south, who are on the frontline. “This is timely,” Harris told IPS during COP30 in Belém, a city identical with its leafy avenues and colonial mansions. “But for it to be truly transformative, it must be rooted in localization, feminist leadership and equity.
She said she was calling the Coalition to ensure that a significant share of this fund goes directly to the global south countries, especially women-led and community-based organizations. “These are people who are already responding to the impacts of climate change and health,” Harris said before adding that while philanthropic finance is good, it must complement resources pulled from public sources.
She said transparency is essential, detailing beneficiaries of this fund to ensure equity and to prevent concentration of funds in the global north institutions at the expense of frontline communities.
This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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