Experts urge leaders to put health at heart of climate change conversations

MANILA, Philippines — Health professionals from Southeast Asia stressed that health should be at the core of climate change discussions as the warming of the planet poses imminent and severe threats to human well-being. 

Beyond its widely-documented ecological and environmental impacts, climate change carries far-reaching consequences for human health, with the World Health Organization calling it the “single biggest threat facing humanity.”

The climate crisis drives extreme weather events such as cyclones and intense heat waves that take lives, fuel the spread of infectious and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases. Climate change-induced disasters and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the planet also exacerbate mental health issues. 

“We really need to push this very, very important fact that you cannot separate our human health from the health of the planet, and we need each of these to be in good health. So it’s all interlinked,” Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia, said at the Asia-Pacific Climate Week in Johor Bahru. 

Renzo Guinto, chief planetary health scientist of the Sunway Centre for Planetary health, emphasized that the adverse health effects linked to climate change disproportionately impact the most vulnerable populations such as women and children.

“This is a health sector issue that cannot be ignored anymore,” Guinto, who also serves as the director of the planetary and global health program of St. Luke’s Medical Center, said in a forum organized by Save the Children Philippines last week. 

A “health day” will be held at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai on December 3—the first-of-its kind in climate negotiations. 

Guinto said this signals that world leaders now recognize that “we need a healthy planet so we can have healthy people.”

In an open letter, health professionals urged the COP28 presidency and the world leaders gathering in the Gulf state to commit to an accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels and a just and equitable clean energy transition “as the decisive path to health for all.” 

They also called on wealthy economies, development finance institutions and the private