Pan-African Multilateral Partnership on Climate Change and Health

By WHO

Climate change due to increased greenhouse gases has led to increased temperatures triggering extreme weather conditions such as droughts, floods hurricanes and air pollution. Unfortunately, climate change is increasingly becoming a major cause of mortality leading to over 150,000 deaths annually as a result of extreme weather conditions. If nothing is done to reverse the climate change trends, an additional 250 000 deaths per year will be registered by the year 2030, emanating from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.  It is further estimated that the direct health costs will reach US$ 2-4 billion/year by 2030, which poses major threats to the universal health coverage agenda. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is evident that people who are already most vulnerable and marginalized will also experience the greatest impacts. The poor, primarily in developing countries, are expected to be disproportionately affected and consequently in the greatest need of adaptation strategies in the face of climate variability and change. Further, the impact of climate change is inequitable. Women and youths are increasingly being seen as more vulnerable than men to the impacts of climate change, mainly because they represent the majority of the world's poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources. The difference between men and women can also be seen in their differential roles, responsibilities, decision making, access to land and natural resources, opportunities and needs, which are held by both sexes. Worldwide, women have less access than men to resources such as land, credit, agricultural inputs, decision-making structures, technology, training and extension services that would enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change.