It is time to tackle climate-related health risks
Winter is here and so is the haze that brings with it a variety of chronic health problems. The toxic smog that has been shrouding northern India and parts of Pakistan for quite some time now seems to have invaded my home city of Calcutta, too.
The city of joy is experiencing its foulest spell of pollution in recent years, so much so that the air quality index around the famous Victoria Memorial Hall, which remains the cleanest and greenest spot in Calcutta, has taken a turn for the worse.
With levels of particulate matter rising to 2.5 — considered to be the most hazardous for human health due to its ability to impact the lungs and enter the bloodstream – and with it infiltrating the lower strata of the atmosphere, a senior medical consultant has advised residents to exercise caution.
In fact, in a recent study, the Lancet, a world-renowned medical journal attributed more than 1.24 million deaths across India to air pollution, in 2017 alone, leading to a 1.7 years fall in overall life expectancy. As the smog covers South Asia, its northern portion in particular struggles to cope with the serious environmental hazard, even as consolidated regional cooperation remains the key to winning this war, given the interconnected nature of the South Asian airshed.
Keeping this in mind, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province wrote to his Indian counterpart, proposing regional cooperation to tackle the smog and health issues related to it. And I dare say, the time has finally arrived for India and Pakistan to join hands and show the world that they can create and sustain a healthy and vibrant environment to live in.
Jairam Ramesh, India’s former environment minister and a commissioner for the Lancet’s Commission on Pollution and Health, is in agreement, and took pains to explain to me that it is not just air or water pollution, but the entire issue of environmental and natural resource management for which South Asian countries need to consult, collaborate and cooperate with each other in a constructive manner.
The time has finally arrived for India and Pakistan to join hands and show the world that they can create and sustain a healthy and vibrant environment to live in.
Seema Sengupta
If the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s member states could sign a trans-boundary haze pollution agreement to achieve a clean and healthy environment, and North America can attain a commendable victory to overcome the menace of acid rain by implementing evidence-based policies and interventions, there is no reason why South Asian nations cannot join hands to prevent the region from turning into an unhealthy snow-globe.
After all, exposure to air pollution causes approximately 13-22 percent of all deaths and 58 million disabilities across South Asia, which has one of the highest concentrations of black carbon emissions in the world.
As Sangye Chewang, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretariat’s Director for Environment, Natural Disaster and Biotechnology, said, the Convention on Cooperation on Environment, signed during the 16th SAARC summit, can indeed be the right basis for a fruitful collaboration in the field of environment – including air quality management – and sustainable development, through an exchange of best practices and knowledge, capacity building, joint research, and transfer of eco-friendly technologies.
Dr. Samlee Plianbangchang, the former regional director overseeing the WHO’s South-East Asia operations and the ex-adviser to Thailand’s Public Health Minister made an interesting observation while discussing the impact of climate change with me.
He reasons that the successive Conferences of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change fails to adequately recognize the health impact due to the continuous conflict between economic development and protection of public health, with the former taking precedence in policy-making almost every time, everywhere.
Most importantly, it is always the developing countries that are the most disproportionately affected when it comes to health issues caused by a variation in climatic conditions, and yet their opinions hardly matter at the high table.
Plianbangchang shared with me how he tried to strengthen the underdeveloped and under-heard countries’ political leverage at COP by convening a regional meeting quite a few times. He acknowledged candidly that there has been hardly any change in the global situation so far.
So, are we staring at a bleak future because policymakers the world over are not convinced that health is equally, if not more, important than the profits and losses of economics? Plianbangchang sounded hopeful, as he supported my contention of forming regional pressure groups that would deal with air pollution in a holistic manner, and go a step further in advocating persistent efforts to weave a seamless web of collaboration between Asian intergovernmental organizations such as SAARC, ASEAN and those representing the Eastern Mediterranean Region countries, to help adopt the best practices in public health and create legally binding instruments.
However, it is easier said than done, as the internal community has been rather reluctant to spend lavishly on climate-related health risks, with a meager 3.8 percent of the $472·82 million global climate adaptation funds being allocated for health.
Seema Sengupta is a Calcutta-based journalist and columnist.
