Climate Change Negotiations and Health Protection for the World’s Poor

The step was very well received as it was a strong affirmation that action is needed now. The protection plan for the world’s poorest countries is particularly welcome as the impact of climate change is being felt by some of the poorest regions of the world that have neither contributed to causing climate change nor are able to adapt in order protect themselves.

Despite political commitment, little concrete action has been seen so far. Moreover, European leaders seem to delay any decision on committing money for developing countries to help them mitigate carbon emissions and adapt to an already rapidly changing climate.

Preparations for the UN Convention on Climate Change

The end of May and the beginning of June 2009 saw a number of high level talks on the issue of climate change. These talks included the Development Policy Forum (DPF) Roundtable on a Climate Protection Plan for the World’s Poor (29 May 2009, Brussels) and the Bonn meeting (1-12 June 2009, Bonn), which formed part of the preparations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (due for publication in December 2009 in Copenhagen).

The DPF Roundtable discussed two main cross-cutting issues in the field of development: the impact of climate change on development (including the impact on health) and the question of funds to tackle climate change in the developing world. The Bonn meeting addressed climate negotiation targets needed to deal with the crisis.

Climate change commitments

The meetings were held in recognition of the fact that the earliest victims of climate change will be (if not already are) the poorest countries, those that are least equipped to withstand its effects and, at the same time, have contributed the least to this climate crisis. A growing awareness of this has added a new dimension to global negotiations on the environment, development aid and social justice.

However, the biggest polluters greatly disagree over what is a fair effort in order to combat the climate change crisis. The European Union (EU) has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020. Additionally, it promised to extend this target to 30% if other rich countries make similar promises. The US, however, has proposed only 17%. Within the EU, no unified vision of the fair share of the financial burden exists. When finance ministers from the Member States’ national governments met on 9 June in Luxembourg they discussed how the EU can transfer money to developing countries to help them adapt to climate change and get on the path of low-carbon growth. Poland opposed plans to calculate contributions on the basis of historic emissions as it fears that a past-emissions formula will leave it with an ‘unfair’ and ‘excessive’ amount to pay.

Environment and development interconnections

The ongoing climate change talks mainly highlight the following issues:

 The developed world has a moral responsibility to pay for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries – climate change is a human rights issue.
 The effects of climate change are obvious: extreme weather events are on the increase, there are rising sea levels, increasing floods, melting glaciers and severe droughts throughout the world. These changes are already having an impact on the way people live, in terms of increased risks of diseases, social deprivation and poverty. This will, if it has not already, lead to changes in human health, wealth and security.
 Key issues relating to climate change should be mitigation and adaptation, the former is perhaps even more important and relevant for developing countries. One of the main tasks ahead is to build resilience for affected countries.
 Money to help developing countries cope with the impact of climate change must come from additional sources over and above already promised Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, developing countries are desperately in need of capacity-building assistance. This assistance should focus on facilitating access to existing ODA and extra funds, and enabling developing countries to make effective use of them.

Money for adaptation and mitigation from the EU

Having mentioned the last issue - money - it is worth adding that the EU is extremely reluctant to put any money ’on the table’, believing it to be a bad negotiating tactic to show its hand too soon. Over the last six months, EU ministers and leaders have repeatedly declined from making any commitment with clear figures. Even the latest summer summit (19 June 2009) did not bring any clarification. EU leaders are reluctant to release any concrete figures sooner than two months before the Copenhagen meeting. Green groups, development organisations and global health activists believe that this gamesmanship is endangering the chances of reaching a deal and putting developing countries into uneasy position whereby they are asked to adapt without the necessary support.

Health of the world’s poorest endangered

Extreme climatic conditions - droughts, floods, tornadoes - are powerful enough to destroy the local environment for millions of people. Unsurprisingly, the communities affected are often the poorest and the least resilient to sudden shocks. Not only does their economic situation slide deeper under the poverty line, their health and environment become seriously endangered when indirect consequences of climate change hit. As new diseases emerge, hygienic conditions become scarce, water gets polluted, populations migrate and people face a variety of unknown and unexpected public health threats. Economic downturn, climate change and food crises are all interwoven with health. This implies concerted action and holistic approach to all these crises in order to avoid a humanitarian crisis that would cost the world millions of lives.

EPHA articles

 "Protecting Health from Climate Change" - World Health Day, 7 April 2008
 Climate change and health
 Global crises dramatically impacting on health, says Dr Margaret Chan