Climate change is the “greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st Century,” according to a 2022 Lancet report on health and the climate crisis. Yet, little funding is made available to the countries most affected by it to withstand the related health impacts.
The World Health Organization estimates that every year almost 13 million people lose their lives to environmental causes. That is due to direct impacts, such as the 1,739 people who lost their lives due to severe floods in Pakistan in 2022, as well as the indirect impacts of food and water shortages. The Horn of Africa is currently being confronted by an unprecedented number of disease outbreaks and climate-related food crises, with 47 million people facing acute hunger. Meanwhile, insect-borne diseases are expected to affect an additional 4.7 billion people worldwide by 2070 as a result of global warming.
There is an increasing need for donors and development partners to invest in system-based approaches that foster climate-resilient health systems and not wait for a crisis before acting.