As climate negotiations continue in the city of Belém in the Brazilian Amazon, governments, UN agencies and partners have adopted the Belém Health Action Plan, with a focus on addressing healthcare inequalities.
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A planet heading to “intensive care”
It was adopted on the Health Day designated by the Conference of the Parties – an acknowledgment that the climate crisis is also a health crisis.
“If our planet is sick, it will be put into intensive care,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on the eve of the conference.
Extreme heat, floods, droughts and storms not only pose environmental threats, but also lead to disease outbreaks, food and water insecurity, and disruption of basic health services.
A patient recovering from fistula repair surgery is examined in the recovery ward of Daynele Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Planned for flexibility
The action plan, developed by the World Health Organization, the United Nations University and other UN partners in cooperation with the Brazilian Government, sets out practical steps for integrating health into climate strategies.
- Strengthening health systems To withstand climate shocks
- Mobilizing finance and technology To adapt and
- Ensuring communities have a voiceAnd enhance their participation in governance.
Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha described the launch as a “defining moment to demonstrate the power of the health sector in global climate action.”
Civil society demonstration at COP30
Solutions Hub
Thursday’s high-level sessions in the main meeting rooms are dominated by speeches and discussions on climate and health – but throughout COP 30, the WHO-led health pavilion has been a hub for solutions and dialogue.
Topics covered at the pavilion range from artificial intelligence, waste management, jobs, education and human rights, all from a health perspective.
Friday at the Pavilion will be dedicated to the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, a WHO-led initiative to accelerate the transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient health systems.
Food waste breakthrough
Also today, UNEP and its partners launched an initiative to halve food waste by 2030 and cut up to seven percent of methane emissions as part of efforts to slow climate change.
The United Nations Environment Program notes that the world wastes more than a billion tons of food each year, contributing up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and accounting for up to 14 percent of methane emissions, a short-lived climate pollutant that is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere over 20 years.
With funding from the Global Environment Facility, UNEP will launch a four-year, $3 million global project to implement Breakthrough Food Waste goals.
