COP27 Climate Change Conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world

Abstract

Wealthy nations must step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present, and future impacts of climate change. The 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a dark picture of the future of life on earth, characterised by ecosystem collapse, species extinction, and climate hazards such as heatwaves and floods.1Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeClimate change 2022: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/Date: 2022Date accessed: October 4, 2022Google Scholar These are all linked to physical and mental health problems, with direct and indirect consequences of increased morbidity and mortality. To avoid these catastrophic health effects across all regions of the globe, there is broad agreement—as 231 health journals argued together in 20212Atwoli L Baqui AH Benfield T et al.Call for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health.Lancet. 2021; 398: 939-941Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar—that the rise in global temperature must be limited to less than 1·5°C compared with pre-industrial levels. Although the Paris Agreement of 2015 outlines a global action framework that incorporates providing climate finance to developing countries, this support has yet to materialise.3UNThe Paris Agreement.https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreementDate: 2015Date accessed: September 12, 2022Google Scholar COP27 is the fifth Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be organised in Africa since its inception in 1995. Ahead of this meeting, we—as health journal editors from across the continent—call for urgent action to ensure it is the COP that finally delivers climate justice for Africa and vulnerable countries. This is essential not just for the health of those countries, but also for the health of the whole world. Africa has suffered disproportionately from the climate crisis, although it has done little to cause the crisis. The climate crisis has had an impact on the environmental and social determinants of health across Africa, leading to devastating health effects.4Climate Investment FundsClimate change and health in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Uganda.https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/sites/cif_enc/files/knowledge-documents/final_chasa_report_19may2020.pdfDate: 2020Date accessed: September 26, 2022Google Scholar Impacts on health can result directly from environmental shocks and indirectly through socially mediated effects.5WHOStrengthening health resilience to climate change. World Health Organization, Geneva2016Google Scholar Climate-change-related risks in Africa include flooding, drought, heatwaves, reduced food production, and reduced labour productivity.6Trisos CH Adelekan IO Totin E et al.Africa. In: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change 2022: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability.https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/Date: 2022Date accessed: September 26, 2022Google Scholar Droughts in sub-Saharan Africa have tripled between 1970–79 and 2010–19.7World BankClimate change adaptation and economic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank, Washington, DC2021Google Scholar In 2018, devastating cyclones impacted 2·2 million people in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.7World BankClimate change adaptation and economic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank, Washington, DC2021Google Scholar In west and central Africa, severe flooding resulted in mortality and forced migration from loss of shelter, cultivated land, and livestock.8Opoku SK Leal Filho W Hubert F Adejumo O Climate change and health preparedness in Africa: analysing trends in six African countries.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021; 184672Crossref Scopus (83) Google Scholar Changes in vector ecology brought about by floods and damage to environmental hygiene has led to increases in diseases across sub-Saharan Africa, with rises in malaria, dengue fever, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Lyme disease, Ebola virus disease, West Nile virus, and other infections.9Evans M Munslow B Climate change, health, and conflict in Africa's arc of instability.Perspect Public Health. 2021; 141: 338-341Crossref PubMed Scopus (79) Google Scholar, 10Stawicki SP Papadimos TJ Galwankar SC Miller AC Firstenberg MS Reflections on climate change and public health in Africa in an era of global pandemic. Contemporary developments and perspectives in international health security.vol 2. IntechOpen, London2021Google Scholar Rising sea levels reduce water quality, leading to water-borne diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, a leading cause of mortality in Africa.9Evans M Munslow B Climate change, health, and conflict in Africa's arc of instability.Perspect Public Health. 2021; 141: 338-341Crossref PubMed Scopus (79) Google Scholar Extreme weather damages water and food supply, increasing food insecurity and malnutrition, which causes 1·7 million deaths annually in Africa.11African Climate Policy CentreClimate change and health in Africa: issues and options.https://archive.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/policy_brief_12_climate_change_and_health_in_africa_issues_and_options.pdfDate: 2013Date accessed: September 12, 2022Google Scholar According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, malnutrition has increased by almost 50% since 2012, owing to the central role agriculture has in African economies.12UNClimate change is an increasing threat to Africa. UN Climate Change News.https://unfccc.int/news/climate-change-is-an-increasing-threat-to-africaDate: 2020Date accessed: September 12, 2022Google Scholar Environmental shocks and their knock-on effects also cause severe harm to mental health.13Atwoli L Muhia J Merali Z Mental health and climate change in Africa.BJPsych International. 2022; (published online June 17.)https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2022.14Crossref PubMed Scopus (70) Google Scholar In all, it is estimated that the climate crisis has destroyed a fifth of the gross domestic product of the countries most vulnerable to climate shocks.14Vulnerable Twenty GroupClimate vulnerable economies loss report. Vulnerable Twenty Group, Switzerland2020Google Scholar The damage to Africa should be of supreme concern to all nations. This is partly for moral reasons. It is highly unjust that the most impacted nations have contributed the least to global cumulative emissions, which are driving the climate crisis and its increasingly severe effects. North America and Europe have contributed 62% of carbon dioxide emissions since the Industrial Revolution, whereas Africa has contributed only 3%.15Ritchie H Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions? Our World in Data.https://ourworldindata.org/contributed-most-global-co2Date: 2019Date accessed: September 12, 2022Google Scholar Yet it is not just for moral reasons that all nations should be concerned for Africa. The fight against the climate crisis needs all hands on deck. The acute and chronic impacts of the climate crisis create problems such as poverty, infectious disease, forced migration, and conflict that spread through globalised systems.7World BankClimate change adaptation and economic transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank, Washington, DC2021Google Scholar, 16Bilotta N Botti F Paving the way for greener central banks: current trends and future developments around the globe. Edizioni Nuova Cultura for Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome2022Google Scholar These knock-on impacts affect all nations. COVID-19 served as a wake-up call to these global dynamics and it is no coincidence that health professionals have been active in identifying and responding to the consequences of growing systemic risks to health. But the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic should not be limited to pandemic risk.17WHOCOP26 special report on climate change and health: the health argument for climate action. World Health Organization, Geneva2021Google Scholar, 18Al-Mandhari A Al-Yousfi A Malkawi M El-Adawy M “Our planet, our health”: saving lives, promoting health and attaining well-being by protecting the planet—the Eastern Mediterranean perspectives.East Mediterr Health J. 2022; 28: 247-248Crossref PubMed Scopus (80) Google Scholar Instead, it is imperative that the suffering of front-line nations, including those in Africa, be the core consideration at COP27; in an interconnected world, leaving countries to the mercy of environmental shocks creates instability that has severe consequences for all nations. The primary focus of climate summits remains to rapidly reduce emissions so that global temperature rises are kept to below 1·5°C. This will limit the harm. But, for Africa and other vulnerable regions, this harm is already severe. Achieving the promised target of providing US$100 billion of climate finance a year is now globally critical if we are to forestall the systemic risks of leaving societies in crisis. This can be done by ensuring these resources focus on increasing resilience to the existing and inevitable future impacts of the climate crisis, as well as on supporting vulnerable nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions: a parity of esteem between adaptation and mitigation. These resources should come through grants not loans, and be urgently scaled up before the current review period of 2025. They must put health-system resilience at the forefront, as the compounding crises caused by the climate crisis often manifest in acute health problems. Financing adaptation will be more cost-effective than relying on disaster relief. Some progress has been made on adaptation in Africa and around the world, including early warning systems and infrastructure to defend against extremes. But front-line nations are not compensated for impacts from a crisis they did not cause. This is not only unfair, but also drives the spiral of global destabilisation, as nations pour money into responding to disasters, but can no longer afford to pay for greater resilience or to reduce the root problem through emissions reductions. A financing facility for loss and damage must now be introduced, providing additional resources beyond those given for mitigation and adaptation. This must go beyond the failures of COP26 where the suggestion of such a facility was downgraded to “a dialogue”.19Evans S Gabbatiss J McSweeney R et al.COP26: key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Glasgow. Carbon Brief.https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop26-key-outcomes-agreed-at-the-un-climate-talks-in-glasgow/Date: 2021Date accessed: September 12, 2022Google Scholar The climate crisis is a product of global inaction, and comes at great cost not only to disproportionately impacted African countries, but also to the whole world. Africa is united with other front-line regions in urging wealthy nations to finally step up, if for no other reason than that the crises in Africa will sooner rather than later spread and engulf all corners of the globe, by which time it may be too late to effectively respond. If so far wealthy countries have failed to be persuaded by moral arguments, then hopefully their self-interest will now prevail. CZ receives consulting fees from the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. PY receives honoraria from Novartis, bioMérieux, and Pfizer and receives advisory board fees from Pfizer and fees for serving on a DSMB from the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute all unrelated to the topic of this Comment. JM is an unpaid Board member of the International Working Group for Health systems strengthening unrelated to the topic of this Comment. DO-A receives advisory board fees from Inovio Pharmaceuticals and is a member of the Board of Directors of GLICO Healthcare all unrelated to the topic of this Comment. The other authors declare no competing interests. This Comment is being published simultaneously in multiple journals (appendix). The full list of journals and supporting journals can be found on the website. Download .pdf (.14 MB) Help with pdf files Supplementary appendix