Date: 21/11/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Biodiversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management.

Key Phrases: Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC), Monkeypox, COVID-19 and polio, zoonotic, spillovers, mortality burden, environmental determinants, mass livestock production.

Why in News?

• Climate change has become an even more pressing issue as it threatens public health, therefore, climate action needs to go beyond mere words.
• For the first time in history, there are three Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) ongoing in parallel: Monkeypox, COVID-19 and polio. Polio was declared a PHEIC way back in 2014.

How climate change is impacting health?

• Experts suggest that every viral pandemic since 1900—including HIV, influenza, and COVID-19 was the result of “spillovers” of viruses from animals into humans.
• Given this, it is highly likely that the next pandemic could also have zoonotic origins.
• The likelihood of pandemics itself depends partly on climate-related environmental changes.
• Evidence indicates that the spillover of a number of emerging infectious diseases is associated with close human-animal interactions such as live animal–human markets, mass livestock production and climate-induced movements of humans and animals into new areas.
• Climate crisis: A health crisis both directly and indirectly.
  • Amplifies both morbidity and mortality burden. Apart from direct impacts on health, climate change undermines many key determinants of health, amplifying both morbidity and mortality burdens.
  • Affects social and environmental determinants of health: According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change affects social and environmental determinants of health such as air, drinking water, food security as well as safe housing.
  • Between 2030 and 2050, 250,000 additional deaths per year are expected to result from climate change, due to undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, and heat stress.
  • Monetary Damage: The direct monetary damage to health alone (excluding social determinant sectors), is expected to be between US$2 to 4 billion per year by 2030.
  • Increases the risk of a range of communicable diseases: The IPCC report also observed that increases in both rainfall and temperature will increase the risk of a range of communicable diseases in tropical and subtropical Asia.
  • Heat-related deaths: A number of heat-related deaths are bound to increase in Asia due to higher exposure.
  • Impact on food security: Additionally, these factors will have an adverse impact on food security in South and Southeast Asia.

  

COP27 and the Lancet Countdown Report

• The report found that during the last two years, extreme weather events caused devastation across the world, adding further pressure to stressed health services already grappling with the impacts of the pandemic.
• The report asserted that a business-as-usual trajectory of actions is insufficient to reach the 1•5°C target.
• The report estimated that annual heat-related mortality of the elderly population (those older than 65 years) increased by 68 percent between 2000–04 and 2017–21.
• In parallel, heat exposure had a devastating impact on economies by contributing to productivity decline.
• Decline of 470 billion potential labour hours in 2021: According to the report, it led to a decline of 470 billion potential labour hours in 2021, with equivalent to 0•72 percent of the global economic output in income losses.
• Income losses disproportionately increased: The income losses disproportionately increased to 5•6 percent of the GDP when it came to low Human Development Index (HDI) countries.
• Vector-borne diseases: The global increase in temperatures has impacts on vector-borne diseases as well.
• The Countdown report found that the time period suitable for malaria transmission rose by 31•3percent and 13•8 percent in the highland areas of the Americas and Africa respectively between 1951–60 to 2012–22.
• Risk of dengue transmission also increased: In parallel, the risk of dengue transmission also increased by 12 percent.
• The report found that the threat of extreme weather on crop yields puts pressure on supply chains and contributed to food insecurity.
• The report acknowledges that older adults, people with cardiovascular disease, the poor, and people isolated in low-cost housing are exposed to the highest risk of heatwaves and calls for sustainable and affordable cooling alternatives.
• The use of dirty fuels: Across the world, the use of ‘dirty fuels’ causes air pollution, as around 770 million people with no electricity at home have no alternative.
  • Lancet estimated that in 2020, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution contributed to 3•3 million deaths, more than one-third of which were directly linked to fossil fuels.
  • The report recommended that decarbonisation is an urgent priority with direct and indirect benefits.
• Health Sector contributing to Greenhouse Emissions: Interestingly, the report found that in 2019, the healthcare sector itself contributed approximately to 5•2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a rise of more than 5 percent from 2018.

Way Forward:

• Inclusive governance, investment aligned with climate resilient development, access to appropriate technology and rapidly scaled-up finance, and capacity building of governments at all levels enable climate resilient development.
• Building the resilience of biodiversity and supporting ecosystem integrity can maintain benefits for people, including livelihoods, human health and well-being as well as contributing to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• Taking integrated action for climate resilience to avoid climate risk requires urgent decision making for the new built environment and retrofitting existing urban design, infrastructure and land use.
• Shifting to a more vegetarian diet, as more plant-based diets could bring down 55 percent of agricultural emissions contributed by red meat and milk production, and reduce zoonotic disease risks.
• The Miyawaki Method is one of the most effective tree planting methods for creating forest cover quickly on degraded land that has been used for other purposes such as agriculture or construction.

Conclusion:

• Despite the depressing statistics presented across the text, various reports argue that a health-centred climate response may have started to emerge globally.
• Supporting evidence presented shows coverage of health and climate change-related content in global media reached a record high in 2021, with a 27percent rise from 2020.
• However it is clear now that minor, marginal, reactive or incremental changes won’t be sufficient.
• In addition to technological and economic changes, shifts in most aspects of society are required to overcome limits to adaptation, build resilience, reduce climate risk to tolerable levels, guarantee inclusive, equitable and just development and achieve societal goals without leaving anyone behind.

Source: ORF-Online

Mains Question:

Q. Climate change has become an even more pressing issue as it threatens public health, therefore, climate action needs to go beyond mere words. Discuss (150 Words)