NEW YORK – Hailed by Brazil as “a crucial moment to demonstrate the strength of the health sector in global climate action,” a blueprint for global health systems to adapt to rising temperatures and extreme weather has been launched at the COP30 UN climate conference, UN News reported.
As climate negotiations continue in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil, governments, UN agencies and partners have adopted the Belém Health Action Plan, placing an emphasis on addressing healthcare inequalities.
The adoption took place on COP’s designated Health Day – a recognition that the climate crisis is also a health crisis.
“If our planet were a patient, it would be admitted to intensive care,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on the eve of the conference.
Extreme heat, floods, droughts and storms are not only environmental threats –they are driving disease outbreaks, food and water insecurity, and the disruption of essential health services.
Developed by the WHO, UN University (UNU) and other UN partners in collaboration with the Brazilian Government, the Action Plan sets out practical steps to integrate health into climate strategies.
Brazil’s Health Minister Alexandre Padilha described the launch as “a crucial moment to demonstrate the strength of the health sector in global climate action”.
The high-level sessions in the main conference rooms are dominated by speeches and discussions about climate and health – but throughout COP30, the WHO-led Health Pavilion has been the hub for solutions and dialogue.
The topics covered at the pavilion range from AI to waste management, jobs, education and human rights – all from the perspective of health.
Friday in the pavilion will be dedicated to the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, a WHO-led initiative to accelerate the transition to climate-resilient and low carbon health systems.
Also, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and its partners launched an initiative to cut food waste in half by 2030 and cut up to seven percent of methane emissions as part of efforts to slow climate change.
UNEP notes that the world wastes more than one billion tons of food every year, contributing up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and accounting for up to 14 percent of methane emissions, which is a short-lived climate pollutant that is 84 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over 20 years.
Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the UN Environment Program will launch a dlrs 3 million, four-year global project to implement the targets of the Food Waste Breakthrough.
