- Excellencies, guests, ladies and gentlemen – a very good afternoon.
- I am pleased to be here to close this important day of discussing ‘the future we want’ through the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health.
- A healthy environment is the foundation of a healthy society. Clean air, safe drinking water, and a stable climate are fundamental to human well-being.
- Sustainable development makes for better health and, over the years, our 11 Member States in our WHO South-East Asia Region have shown strong leadership in addressing the environmental determinants of health.
- Long before the health was part of the COP negotiations, SEARO took the initiative to organize a bi-regional meeting in Bali to discuss and address the impacts of climate change on human health. That was as far back as 2007.
- In 2017, the Male Declaration expressed our regional commitment to build health systems resilience to climate change.
- WHO operationalized that Male’ declaration in the Framework for Action: building health systems resilience to climate change in South-East Asia Region, 2017–2027.
- Building on that, our countries and WHO agreed to the Regional Plan of Action to Implement the Global Strategy for Health, Environment and Climate Change in 2019.
- Today:
- 10 countries of my region have plans and strategies for national health and climate change
- 9 countries have established mechanisms to train health personnel on the health impacts of climate change
- 10 countries have conducted at least one vulnerability and adaptation assessment, and
- 10 countries have received external funding for climate change and health programs,
- an online advocacy toolkit on climate change and health was launched during COP26 and it is now used by member states
- 7 countries from the region have made COP26 health commitments and are part of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, (ATACH).
- ATACH is a critical global collaboration platform, bringing together 91 countries committed at Ministry of Health level, and over 70 technical partners.
- The Alliance helps support country-level action on climate and health. It drives action on key global initiatives, including:
- the COP26 Health Program
- the Initiative on Climate Action and Nutrition,
- the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda from COP27
- the COP28 Health Declaration, and
- the Resolution on Climate Change and Health adopted by the 77th World Health Assembly.
9. We have heard today about many of the health impacts of climate change; how the health sector is contributing to global emissions; and how critical health gains can be made through mitigation action in other sectors.
10. We have also primarily focused on solutions. Solutions to build the Future we want.
11. We have heard:
- experiences from countries and inputs from experts on how we can increase the resilience of our health systems
- how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of our health systems
- that we need to work with other sectors to ensure that mitigation policies in those sectors have the greatest health gains,
- and, critically, how to do this in a gender- and equity- responsive, or better yet, transformative way.
12. And in order to succeed in implementation of these solutions we, of course, need finance.
13. We know that climate and health is significantly underfunded in the climate finance space. Today we have discussed ways to access finance for climate and health.
14. I am very pleased to inform you that SEARO will organize and lead the ATACH Financing meeting next year. We would like to invite all of you to Timor Leste next year for this meeting. The meeting is expected to be in February, and my office will be in touch with further details.
15. Our discussions today have inspired hope. We know, of course, that there is more work for us all to do.
16. In conclusion, I would like to urge all countries that have not already done so, to join ATACH and work together to build the future we want.
Thank you.