The World Bank Group has projected that if global leaders fail to pay more attention to current climate-related health risks, about 44 million additional people could be pushed to extreme poverty level by 2030.
The Bretton Woods institution in a recent report noted that current extreme weather events were taking huge toll on wellbeing of millions of people globally and canvassed the need for urgent actions by national governments to tackle the challenge, particularly among vulnerable population across the global geopolitical zones.
According to the report, changing climate patterns are not just an issue of environmental concerns as they are negatively impacting human health, with extreme weather events becoming more frequent and severe in recent years.
As expected, the report reflected that rate of heat-related illnesses, infectious diseases, maternal and child health complications, and heightened risks from natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes remained on surging trend.
In addition, the report’s findings showed that climate change is straining the health system, impairing most of them, especially in developing and poor countries, to cope with growing demands for health care.
A further analysis of the report indicated that if climate change continued unchecked, it could cause addition 21 million deaths by 2050 from major health risks, including extreme heat, malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, and dengue fever, among others.
The latest data from the World Bank showed that the link between climate and poverty is undeniable, with the study estimating that climate change may push an additional 132 million people, more than half of whom live in Sub-Saharan and South Asia, into extreme poverty with 44 million of this figure driven by health impacts.
Appreciating the urgency of addressing the global health worrisome situation, the World Bank has continued to rev up its efforts to integrate climate considerations into its health intervention projects and programmes across the world.
Figures from its intervention programmes revealed that with about $34 billion health portfolio in over 100 countries, the World Bank’s Climate and Health Program is designed to bolster health systems to predict, detect and effectively respond to climate-related risks.
Some of the key initiatives of the World Bank’s Climate and Health Program include strengthening surveillance and early warning systems, enhancing health workforce capacity, and climate-proofing healthcare infrastructure.
In addition, the initiative considers transitioning to low-carbon healthcare delivery models as crucial, given the health sector’s significant contribution to greenhouse emissions globally.
