The World Health Organization has highlighted in a new report published ahead of the November 11-22 COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan how extreme weather events are costing lives and fueling disease.

The United Nations’ annual climate talks have increasingly focused on the health impacts of global warming, with last year’s COP28 in Dubai including a health day for the first time.

– Trump, COP and WHO –

The Baku summit will be the last UN climate summit before Donald Trump returns as US president in January.

Trump has long denounced climate change as a “hoax.”

During his 2017-2021 term as president, he pulled out of the Paris Agreement to curb global warming — and began pulling the United States out of the WHO, accusing the UN health agency of being a puppet of China.

Trump has pledged to reverse the greener policies of incumbent US President Joe Biden, under which the US rejoined the Paris Agreement.

Trump’s threat to again abandon this international effort to curb global warming adds to the sense of urgency for the UN summit to push through deals before he becomes US president for a second term.

– “Life and Death” –

The WHO report put the links between climate and health in stark language, citing recent disasters.

“Climate change is making us sick and urgent action is a matter of life and death,” it says.

“From the direct effects of extreme weather and air pollution to the indirect consequences of ecosystem disruption and social instability, climate change threatens physical and mental health, well-being and life itself.

“These impacts are not distant or abstract – they are being felt now, through record temperatures in India, deadly floods in Kenya and Spain, mega fires in the Amazon and hurricanes in the United States.”

– COP call of the head of the WHO –

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said extreme weather disrupts health, water and sanitation systems, fuels and exacerbates outbreaks of non-communicable diseases.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis,” he insisted.

Tedros said the associated health and economic benefits of measures to help the world cope with climate change far outweighed the investment needed to implement them.

“COP29 is a crucial opportunity for world leaders to integrate health considerations into climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies,” he said.

– The impact of climate change on health –

The report says air pollution is linked to nearly seven million premature deaths annually.

About 2.41 billion workers — 71 percent of the working population — are exposed to excessive heat, resulting in 22.85 million injuries and 18,970 deaths annually from heatstroke and other noncommunicable diseases.

Extreme heat leads to health risks such as kidney disorders, strokes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, organ failure and ultimately death.

“Climate change increases the transmission of deadly infectious diseases such as dengue, malaria, West Nile virus, vibriosis and respiratory infections, including pneumonia, Legionella, TB, Covid-19 and influenza, in existing and new locations,” the report said.

And air pollution and climate change are increasing the risk pregnant women face of premature birth, low birth weight and maternal death, it warned.

– Top Recommendations –

The WHO has issued guidance to policy makers on integrating health into national climate plans – something few countries have done so far.

He made six basic recommendations:

— Make human health the “leading measure of climate success”;

— End dependence on and subsidies for fossil fuels to reduce pollution-related diseases;

— Mobilize funds for climate and health initiatives;

— Invest in “proven solutions” such as heat warning systems and clean energy for home use;

— Focus on designing more sustainable cities with improved sanitation and housing that can better withstand extreme weather;

— Better protect the natural world to make our air and water cleaner and improve our food supply.

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