The Single Biggest Threat
5 years, 1 month, 19 hours
21 June 2024
What is the single biggest health threat facing humanity today?
Cancer? Obesity? Illegal drugs? In times past it might have been cholera, tuberculosis, AIDS, the Spanish Flu, or Covid. But today, with no apologies for being somewhat predictable, it is climate change, according to the World Health Organisation in the report they released for COP26.
That report was the inspiration for the Joint Roadmap for Climate-Health Finance and Action published on 12 June by a group of eleven Multilateral and Public Development Banks, with thanks to Ozan Cakmak in our International Development Assistance Services team for having brought it to my attention.
It doesn’t take much imagination or extrapolation from events of the last few years to realise why climate change creates such a health crisis. Direct impacts come from extreme temperatures and ‘natural’ disasters like flash flooding. Indirect impacts come from crop failures, water-borne diseases and displacement of communities, depriving individuals of their livelihoods. And as always with issues of climate change it is individuals in emerging markets who are most at risk.
The Roadmap sets out an agreed agenda for increasing and prioritising investments at the pace and scale necessary to sustainably finance effective climate and health action. The key focus is on multi-stakeholder partnerships to shape and direct investments to specific country needs. And one of the most significant of the six identified areas of approach is the mobilisation of a range of capital sources – public, private and philanthropic.