by DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – As Planet Earth runs a fever pitch, UN climate talks on Sunday focused on the effects of pollution on human health.
Beneath a gray canopy over Dubai, the COP28 summit moved over two days of high rhetoric and calls for unity from top leaders on health concerns such as the deaths of at least 7 million people worldwide due to air pollution each year. year and the spread of disease as. cholera and malaria as global warming disrupts weather systems.
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time for the Conference of the Parties on climate to hold its first health day in its 28th edition, saying that the threats to health from climate change were “present and immediate.”
“Although the climate crisis is a health crisis, it is long overdue that 27 COPs have gone and gone without serious discussion of health issues,” he said. “Without a doubt, health is the strongest reason to take climate action.”
After two days of speeches from dozens of presidents, prime ministers, members of the Royal family and other top leaders – behind the scenes and off stage – participants were also focusing on tough negotiations over the next nine days to further agreement look for ways to limit the world. warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.
Saturday ended with the presidency of COP28 announcing that 50 oil and gas companies had agreed to achieve near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030. They also committed to “net zero”. to achieve their operational emissions by 2050.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said, “It is clear that the commitments that have been made do not meet what is needed.”
In comments Sunday, Guterres called the methane emissions reductions “a step in the right direction.” But he criticized the net-zero pledge for excluding emissions from fossil fuel consumption – which accounts for the vast majority of the industry’s greenhouse gases – and said the announcement did not provide any clarity on how the companies planned to meet their targets. out.
“There must be no space for green-washing,” he said.
Temperature rises due to the burning of oil, gas and coal have exacerbated natural disasters such as floods, heat waves and drought, and caused many people to migrate to more temperate zones — as well as the negative effects on human health.
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, said he was “surprised” that it has taken so long for health to be a central part of the climate discussion.
“Our bodies are ecosystems, and the world is an ecosystem,” Kerry said. “If you poison our land and if you poison our water and if you poison our air, you poison our bodies.”
He said his daughter Vanessa, who works with Tedros, “repeated to me often that we should not measure the progress of the climate crisis by the steps that are undone, but by the lives that are saved.”
The COP28 declaration supported by around 120 countries emphasized the link between health and climate change. He made no mention of phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels, but pledged to support efforts to curb pollution from the health care sector, which accounts for 5% of global emissions. the head of the WHO.
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, head of climate and health at WHO, said that heat alone stressed the body and led to higher rates of infectious diseases.
“Climate change does not need to be a death certificate for us to be confident that climate change is causing death,” said Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, the WHO’s head of climate and health.
Dubai, the largest city in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, often faces higher levels of air pollution due to its location – and haze is common. The city is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, but further inland begins the Empty Quarter, the vast desert that takes up a third of the Arabian Peninsula.
The city’s boom has led to rapid construction, industrial areas and pollution from cars, adding to the impact of sand and particulate matter blown by the desert winds. Some 3.5 million people now live in Dubai, up from 183,000 less than 50 years ago, and estimates suggest another million travel into the city-state every day for work.
The Dubai government, on its environment-focused website, listed its Air Quality Index level at mostly “good” on Sunday. Switzerland-based IQAir, a technology company that sells air quality monitoring products, listed Dubai as the city with the 18th worst air quality in the world with “moderate” levels of air quality as of noon local time on Sunday. He cited high levels of two types of particulate matter in the air, and suggested wearing masks for “sensitive groups” and reducing outdoor exercise.
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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Peter Prengaman contributed to this report.
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