Climate change is the single greatest threat to human health, aggravating 58% of the infectious diseases humans encounter. As weather systems are increasingly thrown into chaos, the burden of climate-sensitive neglected tropical diseases is set to worsen. These diseases already affect over a billion people, many of whom are in the most climate-vulnerable countries — and, while we have made amazing progress toward elimination, the climate crisis threatens to undermine our progress.
One of the clearest messages I took from the United Nations’ COP 28 climate summit, from the voices of youth and those on the front line of the crisis, is that this is not tomorrow’s problem: rising global temperatures are already affecting people’s health, lives, and communities. We desperately need to build resilience and a “one health” approach to climate action that recognizes the importance of integrating the health of humans and ecosystems.
COP 28 did, however, put health in the spotlight more than any previous COP. As told by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “For too long, health has been a footnote in climate discussions. No more.”