attachment
important facts
Climate change has negative impacts on people’s health, including mental health, leading to death and illness from extreme weather events, disruptions to food systems, and the spread of disease. An estimated 3.6 billion people, or 44% of the world’s population, live in areas highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Unless urgent action is taken, climate change is expected to cause an additional 5 million deaths globally from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress between 2030 and 2050. Many countries and regions in the Western Pacific region are at high risk from climate change and climate change. Related disasters. Health impacts vary depending on community vulnerability and resilience. Health facilities are major centers of care, so building their resilience must be a priority to address their vulnerability to the health impacts of climate change.
Climate change is impacting health in many ways, including deaths and illnesses caused by increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as heat, storms, and floods, disruptions to food systems, and an increase in diseases spread by animals, insects, food, and water. affect. Climate change also affects mental health.
Climate change undermines social determinants of health, including livelihoods, equality, and access to health care and social support structures. Groups at risk of vulnerability and disadvantage will be most affected by climate change, including women, children, minorities, the poor, migrants, older people and people with pre-existing conditions.
The short- to medium-term impacts of climate change will depend on a community’s level of risk and resilience. In the long term, its effectiveness will increasingly depend on actions taken now to build resilience and address the root causes of climate change, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
WHO response
WHO is working with countries and regions to build and strengthen climate resilience in health facilities. These efforts will help reduce the vulnerability of the most disadvantaged communities.
WHO is helping member countries track progress in efforts to protect health from climate change. WHO also supports countries and regions in conducting vulnerability and adaptation assessments, implementing initiatives for climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health facilities, and developing and/or updating national adaptation plans for the health sector. I am.
WHO is working to build climate resilience in health facilities in the Western Pacific region across four areas:
Advocacy and Partnerships: Work with UN partners to ensure health is reflected in the climate change agenda and share information on climate health threats and opportunities. Monitoring, science and evidence: Coordinating reviews of scientific evidence on the link between climate change and health. Monitor implementation of adaptation and mitigation measures. Integrated climate-informed early warning and monitoring: Strengthen integrated monitoring and support countries and regions to implement climate-informed early warning systems. Support for countries and regions: Improve the resilience and adaptive capacity of health systems, reduce health vulnerability to climate change, and strengthen their capacity to improve health while reducing carbon emissions.
Source link