BELEM, Brazil: With more than a half-million people worldwide dying from heat-related causes every year, a group of philanthropies is putting $300 million into developing life-saving solutions as global temperatures continue to rise.
The money, announced this week at the COP30 climate negotiations in Brazil, is aimed at developing data and figuring out the best investments for tackling rising risks from extreme heat, air pollution and infectious disease.
“We are a philanthropy. We can’t just keep plugging holes and resuscitating a dying model of development,” said Estelle Willie, the director of health policy and communications at The Rockefeller Foundation, one of the funders.
“So what we are trying to do is through our philanthropy capital, we can start testing and validating new solutions through this work and coming together,” she said. Separately, COP30 host Brazil launched an initiative called the Belem Health Action Plan to encourage countries to monitor and coordinate climate-related health policy across their various ministries and departments.
That effort is part of Brazil’s broader focus at the UN climate talks on bolstering countries’ ability to prepare for – and adapt to – worsening climate impacts including floods, fires, drought, storms and hurricanes.
The newly pledged $300 million adds to the $1 billion-$2 billion being spent in public money toward researching climate-related health impacts, according to a 2023 study in PLOS journal.
Experts said far more is still needed.
“Progress on health is declining,” Willie said in an interview with Reuters. “We’ve had hard-fought wins in health through technology, through the global health system. But climate change is literally making every single problem and global health worse right now.”
An October report in The Lancet scientific journal estimates the yearly number of deaths from heat-related causes worsened by climate change at nearly 550,000.
Another 150,000 annual deaths can be linked to air pollution, often from the burning of fossil fuels but also from worsening wildfires, the report said, while some infectious diseases are also rising. Reported cases of dengue fever are also up 49 percent since the 1950s, it said.
UN agencies in August estimated about half the world’s population, or more than 3.3 billion people, are already struggling with the rising heat.
“The warnings from scientists on climate change have become reality. And it is clear that not all people are affected equally,” said John-Arne Røttingen, chief executive of the Wellcome Trust, another funder.
The most vulnerable are children, pregnant women, older people and outdoor workers, along with “those communities with the least resources to respond,” he said.
Other funders in the newly announced Climate and Health Funders Coalition include the Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and IKEA Foundation. Another 27 philanthropies have signed on but have yet to commit funds.
Deadly heat worldwide prompts $300 million for climate health research at COP30
https://arab.news/m9x36
Deadly heat worldwide prompts $300 million for climate health research at COP30
- Philanthropies put $300 million into health-related research
- Experts warn climate change is worsening health indicators worldwide
Heavy shelling, explosions spark fear along Pakistan-Afghanistan border
- Residents fear for their safety amid border clashes
- 1,500 Afghan families displaced due to heavy shelling and explosions
- Pakistan denies targeting civilians, says its strikes focus on militants
LAL PUR, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan: People living along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan said they were considering fleeing their homes because of heavy shelling and explosions as fighting between troops from both sides entered a seventh day on Wednesday.
The South Asian allies-turned-foes have engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani airstrikes on major Afghan cities last week, increasing volatility in a region also on edge over US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Islamabad has said its airstrikes, which have at times directly targeted the Taliban government, are aimed at ending Afghan support for militants carrying out attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.
SHELLING STARTS AS VILLAGERS ARE BREAKING RAMADAN FAST
Residents of towns and villages in Pakistan’s northwest said fighting between border forces starts in the evenings, placing their homes in the line of fire, often at sunset when families are breaking their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.
“There is complete silence in the day, but the moment we sit for iftar dinner, the two sides start shelling,” Farid Khan Shinwari from Landi Kotal, a town near the Torkham border crossing, told Reuters.
“We open our fast in extremely difficult situations, as you never know when a shell can hit your house.”
Residents in the town and nearby villages said there had been heavy shelling and some explosions heard in the past few days, prompting many to flee their homes.
On the other side of the border, Afghans shared similar stories of skirmishes and families fleeing their homes.
Hundreds had been displaced to an open dirt field under makeshift tents, while others had no shelter at all. Officials say around 1,500 families have fled their homes.
Fighting along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border has ebbed and flowed over the week-long conflict, with both sides saying they have inflicted heavy losses on the other country and gained ground in the fighting.
Reuters has been unable to verify these accounts.
TURKEY HAS OFFERED TO MEDIATE
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Ankara would help reinstate a ceasefire, the Turkish Presidency said on Tuesday, as other countries that had offered to mediate have since been hit by the conflict in the Gulf.
On Wednesday, both countries reported exchanges of heavy fire, with Afghanistan’s defense ministry saying Taliban forces shot down a Pakistani drone and captured seven border posts.
A spokesperson for the ministry said 110 civilians, including 65 women and children, had been killed since the fighting began and another 123 were wounded. The United Nations mission for Afghanistan has listed 42 deaths so far.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed both figures, saying: “Pakistan exercises great care in only targeting terrorists and support infrastructure. No civilian structures have been targeted.”
On Saturday, Pakistan struck “ammunition and critical equipment” at the Bagram air base north of Kabul, Tarar said, a key American command center through the 20-year Afghan war.
