COP28 hears tropical disease pledge
The United Arab Emirates and several charities at the UN climate summit on Sunday offered US$777 million in financing for eradicating neglected tropical diseases that are expected to worsen as temperatures climb. Climate-related factors "have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century", COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber said in a statement. The pledges, made as the COP28 summit on Sunday focused on climate-related health risks, included US$100 million from the UAE and another US$100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Others to announce funds for climate-related health issues included Belgium, Germany and the US Agency for International Development. The World Bank launched a programme to explore possible support measures for public health in developing countries, where climate-related health risks are especially high. The burden of tropical diseases will worsen as the world warms, along with other climate-driven health threats including malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. Many tropical diseases are already easy to treat. River blindness and sleeping sickness, for example, are both endemic to Africa and spread through parasitic worms and flies that are likely to proliferate in a warming world. More than 120 countries have signed a COP28 declaration acknowledging their responsibility to keep people safe amid global warming. The declaration made no mention of fossil fuels, the main source of climate-warming emissions, which the Global Climate and Health Alliance called a "glaring omission". Activists including physicians in white coats held a small demonstration on Sunday within the COP28 compound to raise awareness of the issue. "We are in a lot of trouble," said Joseph Vipond, an emergency physician from Alberta, Canada. He recalled the case of a child dying from an asthma attack made worse by smoke inhalation from Western Canada's record wildfires this year. "This is having real world impacts." (Reuters)