A new global report brings into focus the deep connections between climate change and war, and how these connections multiply the damage to human health.
The report, published by the Global Climate and Health Alliance, a group of more than 250 health professional and health civil society organisations and networks from across the world addressing climate change, follows July’s NATO summit and the hostilities that have resumed in the US-Iran war after the 60-day ceasefire.
Titled Climate Change, Armed Conflict, and Global Public Health: A Reinforcing Cycle of Harm, the report presents evidence on how climate change and armed conflict are related and how that impacts global public health. The authors find that each of these crises are not isolated, but they converge in a “polycrisis”, “a condition in which multiple global crises such as climate change, armed conflict, economic instability, under-resourced health systems and an evolving digital landscape interact and amplify one another, generating a significant threat to global public health”, says a statement by Global Climate and Health Alliance.
Disasters cannot be separated
“This report shows that from wildfires to wars, trying to address each of the elements of the polycrisis in isolation will impact the health of everyone, with the world’s most vulnerable people worst affected”, said Courtney Howard, board chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
“Increasing instability in Earth’s climate, oceans and biodiversity will continue to act as a threat multiplier, threatening human security worldwide”, continued Howard. “To pull out of this worsening climate-conflict spiral, humanity must shift from reacting to individual crises to systematically investing in strengthening the ecological, social, and institutional foundations of wellbeing. This can create reinforcing feedback that improves health, resilience, and peace together, as envisioned in the Paris Agreement and the Pact for the Future,” Howard said.
The report made it clear that governments and international financial actors must respond to climate change with increased investment in climate adaptation, the building of resilient health systems, including renewable-powered healthcare facilities, and by ensuring capabilities for strong humanitarian responses, the expert pointed out.
Threat multiplier
Climate change is a “threat multiplier”: it threatens people’s access to the essentials, food, water, livelihood and energy, says the report. It causes migration and forced displacement, creating stresses that can increase armed conflict, which in turn displaces people and causes major environmental harm. This is a devastating cycle that has severe implications for global public health.
“Healthcare professionals provide on-the-ground care in conflict and humanitarian settings, where their safety should be sacrosanct”, said Omnia El Omrani, Global Climate and Health Alliance vice chair and former UNFCCC youth envoy. “They are also well positioned to speak to the health impacts of climate change, violence and human rights violations, through education, evidence-based advocacy, and engaging with decision makers and policy processes. Doctors know firsthand the strain that climate change puts on communities, how climate change compounds other threats, and the myriad direct and indirect ways that armed conflict devastates communities’ health and safety,” said El Omrani.
The report shows that the intersecting and compounding interactions between climate change and war have had devastating effects in conflict zones themselves and have also affected neighbouring countries. “These range from the effects of conflict- and climate change-driven migration, to impacts on the availability of resources as acutely demonstrated by the current US-Iran war and its global effects on fuel prices, food prices, and more,” says Global Climate and Health Alliance.
For vulnerable populations, the vulnerabilities are severely worsened, “with refugees and asylum seekers, women and girls, children, older adults, remote and rural communities, and Indigenous communities bearing a disproportionate burden of this convergence,” the organisation adds.
Less war, more sensitivity
Other experts pointed at what is being increasingly seen as the problem that is holding back climate action: climate finance. Developed countries, which contribute most to climate change, should step forward to finance climate action, especially for the developing countries, which usually contribute the least to climate change, yet remain the most vulnerable to it.
Besides, the developing countries in the recent past have been withdrawing their commitments to climate finance. The US under President Donald Trump has been a notable example. These trends were evident at the July NATO summit. It was widely felt that the organisation is ignoring climate concerns.
“The Global Climate and Health Alliance is calling on governments to recognise that redirecting investments away from climate change and health and into the military will not in itself deliver security — it is essential they make greater sustainable investment in climate-resilient communities and health systems, universal access to clean energy, stronger multilateral cooperation, and adherence to international humanitarian law”, said Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
“By investing in climate mitigation and adaptation we can reduce the stressors that exacerbate conflict, build resilient health systems, communities and economies, and ensure that robust humanitarian responses are part and parcel of securing a peaceful future,’ said Miller. “World leaders and policymakers should heed the warnings in this report – only an integrated approach that continues to advance climate action, invests in people’s health and well being, and pursues peace building over aggression will deliver true security”, the official concluded.