Human concerns are being pushed to the centre of discussion at the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009, and rightly so.
The countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009 has begun amidst a flurry of activity, with enthusiastic round-table discussions to set the agenda and ambitious announcements of emission cuts. The entire world will observe, starting December 7, a new agenda to tackle climate change taking shape, as policy makers and heads of states chart out measures to be adopted once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. As a run up to the event, health officials the world over are treading an aggressive line, pushing the health impact of climate change in the proceedings at Copenhagen.
Setting a target for the health agenda for the December conference, the World Health Organisation (WHO) highlighted urgent problem areas ealier this year. For one, experts at WHO emphasised at the Climate Change Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions conference, health hazards from climate change are diverse, global and irreversible. “They range from increased risks of extreme weather events, to effects on infectious disease dynamics and sea level rise leading to salinisation of land and water sources,” the report summarises. The effects of climate change on health, the report also points out, is unequal across the globe, dependent on a range of factors.
Statistically, WHO estimates around 1,50,000 deaths occur in low-income countries (including India) every year as a consequence of climate change. The deaths could be the result of crop failure, malnutrition, diarrhoea, malaria and flooding. Listing energy consumption and our transport systems as highly non-conducive to the environment, WHO points out that tacking these two issues will reduce air pollution and traffic accidents drastically.
These concerns aren’t new. But the danger turns graver everyday. Escalating statistics of ailments related to climate change call for serious damage control. While most of the damage is irreversible, the pace and effects of global warming can certainly be softened. In India, the most direct health implication is the widening of the window for mosquitoes to breed in many areas, observes Nitin Desai of TERI, also a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. “There is an upward movement in the hills in areas vulnerable to malaria. Other vector borne disease vectors like yellow fever will also be affected due to climate change,” says Desai. On a more indirect level, he adds, the impact on water resources, particularly the dry season flow, could affect health through shortages and water quality deterioration. On the flipside, excessive rainfall transports contaminants into waterways and drinking water supplies. Plus, there is a high risk of proliferation of pathogens from sewage into fresh water sources.
Waving a flag for India’s health concerns at the Copenhagen conference will be the Indian Youth Delegation (ID), an enthusiastic group of young adults, part of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN). The delegation, in their study “Climate Change Related Health Risks”, brings to attention urgent health issues in India and a possible future scenario. A student at IT Kharagpur, Aniruddha Sharma, who conducted the above mentioned study for IYCN, is of the opinion that India’s low “adaptation capacity” to climate change is a huge cause for concern. “It is likely that India will be unable to deal with the transformation due to climate change. We need to address our process of adaptation urgently, but the cost implications prevent us from doing so. Another concern is a failing disaster management mechanism,” says Sharma, who, alongside his course at IIT, started a company with a business partner to manufacture carbon capture power plants.
For India, the health debate at Copenhagen will be enormously significant — the period until 2030 is often said to be most relevant for the developing Indian economy, keeping in mind the crucial link between human and economic health of the country. In a sense then, we are far from healthy economic growth. With rising temperatures due to global warming, increased humidity will only assist vector borne diseases, already rampant in many regions of the country. A heavy risk of increased outbreaks of malaria, filaria, kala-azar, Japanese encephalitis and dengue also looms large.
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Also on the top of the list are crucial issues related to nutrition, including bacterial contamination of food, decreased agricultural produce, malnutrition and lower life expectancy. “The projected decline in agricultural productivity will clearly affect health through its impact on nutrition vulnerability,” points out Desai. One must also factor in the impact of the likely increase in adverse weather events like cyclones, he says. Respiratory diseases, such as asthma, have been proved to be connected to temperature. Risks of tuberculosis, bronchitis and pneumonia are also likely to increase with global warming. In 2009, over 100 Indians have died in temperature related deaths, especially heat strokes.
Far too often, however, statistics remain mere figures, not followed by active measures. Will 12 days at Copenhangen make a difference? In early discussions a week before the conference, the sense that emerges is that of the “human face” of climate change taking prominence. Health officers and environmentalists point out that if climate change still seems a distant bother to many, a mere focus on its direct health effects are enough to shake anyone out of a slumber. Displacement of communities and related ailments in recent years have not occurred in isolation, but as a result of rising seas and a change in climate. The potential health gains from reduced emissions, if and when carried out, could hope to place us back on safer land.