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Climate change poses significant risks to health and health systems, with the greatest impacts in low- and middle-income countries - which are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The Conference of Parties 28 at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference led to agreement on the need for holistic and equitable financing approaches to address the climate and health crisis. This paper provides an overview of existing climate finance mechanisms - that is, multilateral funds, voluntary market-based mechanisms, taxes, microlevies and adaptive social protection. We discuss these approaches' potential use to promote health, generate additional health sector resources and enhance health system sustainability and resilience, and also explore implementation challenges. We suggest that public health practitioners, policy-makers and researchers seize the opportunity to leverage climate funding for better health and sustainable, climate-resilient health systems. Emphasizing the wider benefits of investing in health for the economy can help prioritize health within climate finance initiatives. Meaningful progress will require the global community acknowledging the underlying political economy challenges that have so far limited the potential of climate finance to address health goals. To address these challenges, we need to restructure financing institutions to empower communities at the frontline of the climate and health crisis and ensure their needs are met. Efforts from global and national level stakeholders should focus on mobilizing a wide range of funding sources, prioritizing co-design and accessibility of financing arrangements. These stakeholders should also invest in rigorous monitoring and evaluation of initiatives to ensure relevant health and well-being outcomes are addressed., ((c) 2024 The authors; licensee World Health Organization.)

The article features the Bulletin of the World Health Organization's call for papers on the impact of climate change on biodiversity, food and health, and on policies for alternative food production systems to minimize the health effects of climate change. It states that contributions from all stakeholders are welcome. Also noted are information on the submission of manuscripts and the deadline for submissions.

The authors offer observation on health impacts of climate change and geopolitics. Topics discussed include increase in global carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, direct health effects of the main drivers of climate changes like fossil fuel, and how climate change affects agriculture. It also mentions goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and ways geopolitics influenced the allocation of foreign assistance.

Anthropogenic climate change appears to be increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events. Such events have already had substantial impacts on socioeconomic development and population health. Climate change's most profound impacts are likely to be on food, health systems and water. This paper explores how climate change will affect food, human health and water in China. Projections indicate that the overall effects of climate change, land conversion and reduced water availability could reduce Chinese food production substantially - although uncertainty is inevitable in such projections. Climate change will probably have substantial impacts on water resources - e.g. changes in rainfall patterns and increases in the frequencies of droughts and floods in some areas of China. Such impacts would undoubtedly threaten population health and well-being in many communities. In the short-term, population health in China is likely to be adversely affected by increases in air temperatures and pollution. In the medium to long term, however, the indirect impacts of climate change - e.g. changes in the availability of food, shelter and water, decreased mental health and well-being and changes in the distribution and seasonality of infectious diseases - are likely to grow in importance. The potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change can only be avoided if all countries work together towards a substantial reduction in the emission of so-called greenhouse gases and a substantial increase in the global population's resilience to the risks of climate variability and change.

The links between rapid population growth and concerns regarding climate change have received little attention. Some commentators have argued that slowing population growth is necessary to reduce further rises in carbon emissions. Others have objected that this would give rise to dehumanizing 'population control' programmes in developing countries. Yet the perspective of the developing countries that will be worst affected by climate change has been almost completely ignored by the scientific literature. This deficit is addressed by this paper, which analyses the first 40 National Adaptation Programmes of Action reports submitted by governments of least-developed countries to the Global Environment Facility for funding. Of these documents, 93% identified at least one of three ways in which demographic trends interact with the effects of climate change: (i) faster degradation of the sources of natural resources; (ii) increased demand for scarce resources; and (iii) heightened human vulnerability to extreme weather events. These findings suggest that voluntary access to family planning services should be made more available to poor communities in least-developed countries. We stress the distinction between this approach, which prioritizes the welfare of poor communities affected by climate change, and the argument that population growth should be slowed to limit increases in global carbon emissions. The paper concludes by calling for increased support for rights-based family planning services, including those integrated with HIV/AIDS services, as an important complementary measure to climate change adaptation programmes in developing countries.

Due to its impact on human health and its capacity to cause damage, disasters are one of the global problems that most concern the international community. However, and in spite of the efforts made by many health systems, the reduction of vulnerabilities and the lack of strategies to avoid or minimize risks have not received enough attention yet. As Cuba is located in an area of permanent danger of disasters, its health sector has accumulated considerable experience in the management of risks and in the assurance of less risky future scenarios, with active participation of the community and a planned and organized process to address the impact of climate change. This paper summarizes some of these experiences and describes the dangers, vulnerabilities, and risks of disasters in Cuba, its Civil Defense System, and planning and organization in the health sector for disaster reduction, as well as the main effects and challenges of climate change in the health system. Lessons learned and good practices support the key role of human resources to reduce vulnerabilities; the greatest challenges are to avoid or minimize risks, to advance research, to train professionals for climate change, and to optimize the organization of health systems and services in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change appears to be increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events. Such events have already had substantial impacts on socioeconomic development and population health. Climate change's most profound impacts are likely to be on food, health systems and water. This paper explores how climate change will affect food, human health and water in China. Projections indicate that the overall effects of climate change, land conversion and reduced water availability could reduce Chinese food production substantially -- although uncertainty is inevitable in such projections. Climate change will probably have substantial impacts on water resources -- e.g. changes in rainfall patterns and increases in the frequencies of droughts and floods in some areas of China. Such impacts would undoubtedly threaten population health and well-being in many communities. In the short-term, population health in China is likely to be adversely affected by increases in air temperatures and pollution. In the medium to long term, however, the indirect impacts of climate change -- e.g. changes in the availability of food, shelter and water, decreased mental health and well-being and changes in the distribution and seasonality of infectious diseases -- are likely to grow in importance. The potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change can only be avoided if all countries work together towards a substantial reduction in the emission of so-called greenhouse gases and a substantial increase in the global population's resilience to the risks of climate variability and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries rodents have been a threat to public health, synonymous as they are with poverty, underdevelopment, and epidemics. The cost of rodents in health terms--whether through disease, malnutrition or [...]