With Planet Earth running a fever, U.N. climate talks focused Sunday on the contagious effects on human health.
Under a brown haze over Dubai, the COP28 summit moved past to concerns about health issues like the deaths of at least 7 million people globally from air pollution each year and like cholera and malaria as global warming upends weather systems.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it鈥檚 high time for the U.N. Conference of Parties on climate to hold its first 鈥淗ealth Day鈥� in its 28th edition, saying the threats to health from climate change were 鈥渋mmediate and present.鈥�
鈥淎lthough the climate crisis is a health crisis, it鈥檚 well overdue that 27 COPs have been and gone without a serious discussion of health,鈥� he said. 鈥淯ndoubtedly, health stands as the most compelling reason for taking climate action.鈥�
After two days of speeches by dozens of presidents, prime ministers, royals and other top leaders 鈥� in the background and on-stage 鈥� participants were also turning attention to tough negotiations over the next nine days to push for more agreement on ways to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
Pope Francis, who was forced to abandon plans to attend because of a case of bronchitis, on Sunday said that 鈥渆ven from a distance, I am following with great attention the work.鈥� In remarks read at the Vatican by an aide, the pope called for an end of what he called 鈥渂ottlenecks鈥� caused by nationalism and 鈥減atterns of the past.鈥�
Sunday at COP28: In one, a group gave mock resuscitation to an inflatable Earth.
鈥淲ell, I mean, it鈥檚 cheesy doing CPR on the Earth,鈥� said Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician from Alberta, Canada, who took part. 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of in a lot of trouble right now,鈥� he said, so will do 鈥渁nything we can do to bring attention to this issue.鈥�
Saturday capped off with conference organizers and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030. They also pledged to reach 鈥渘et zero鈥� for their operational emissions by 2050.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 鈥渢he promises made clearly fall short of what is required.鈥�
In comments Sunday, he called the methane emissions reductions 鈥渁 step in the right direction.鈥� But he criticized the net zero pledge for excluding emissions from fossil fuel consumption 鈥� where the vast majority of the industry鈥檚 greenhouse gases come from 鈥� and said the announcement provided no clarity on how the companies planned to reach their goals.
鈥淭here must be no room for greenwashing,鈥� he said.
Temperature rises caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal have worsened natural disasters like floods, heat waves and drought, and caused many people to migrate to more temperate zones 鈥� in addition to the negative knock-on effects for human health.
鈥淥ur bodies are ecosystems, and the world is an ecosystem,鈥� said John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy. 鈥淚f you poison our land and you poison our water and you poison our air, you poison our bodies.鈥�
He said his daughter Vanessa, who works with the WHO chief, 鈥渞epeats to me frequently that we should not measure progress on the climate crisis just by the degrees averted, but by the lives saved.鈥�
In the United States, 8.5% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the health sector and the Biden Administration is trying to use funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to try to cut that down, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Admiral Rachel Levine said.
U.S. officials said one of the main issues has been waste anesthesia emissions from hospitals and greenhouse gases that escape when patients are treated for respiratory diseases like asthma with albuterol inhalers.
Part of the solution may come through raising awareness: when officials used a system that showed anesthesiologists how much gas they used and how much escaped, emissions fell by as much as half, said Dr. John Balbus, the Health and Human Services climate change and health equity director.
Dr. Yseult Gibert of Montreal said 70 percent of operating-room emissions come from the way patients are given anesthesia. She said some types of anesthesia are more climate-friendly than others, without sacrificing on quality or effectiveness when it comes to care.
A report last week issued by Unitaid, which helps get new healthcare products to low- and middle-income countries, explored how product redesign, improvements in manufacturing and other measures could reduce the carbon footprint of 10 products used for health emergencies, women鈥檚 and children鈥檚 health, and HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
Forest fires caused in part by climate change can have dramatic effects on homes, health and lives. Heat waves, which can be deadly, also can weigh on mental health, Gibert said, while poor air quality can make life harder for those facing lung and heart ailments and cause respiratory issues, like asthma in kids.
鈥淣ot a lot of people know that the climate crisis is a health crisis,鈥� she said.
A COP28 declaration backed by some 120 countries stressed the link between health and climate change. It made no mention of phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels, but pledged to support efforts to curb health care sector pollution, which accounts for 5% of global emissions, according to the WHO head.
The impact of human activity on the climate was visible to conference-goers in Dubai, an oil-rich boom city that often faces higher levels of air pollution than other places on Earth due to its location. Haze is common.
The Dubai government, on its , listed its Air Quality Index level mostly at 鈥済ood鈥� on Sunday.
, a Swiss vendor of air-quality monitoring products, listed Dubai as the city with the 18th-worst air quality in the world with 鈥渕oderate鈥� air quality levels as of noon local time on Sunday. It cited high levels of two types of particulate matter in the air and advised mask-wearing for 鈥渟ensitive groups鈥� and a reduction of outdoor exercise.
