DECLARATION ON CLIMATE AND HEALTH – ENVIRONMENT
News:
123 countries sign
declaration on climate and health at COP28
What's
in the news?
●
Every year, annual deaths from polluted air affect about 9 million people
and 189 million people are exposed to weather-related events each year.
●
Against this backdrop, at the COP28
climate talks, 123 countries signed a ‘COP28 Declaration on Climate and
Health’.
Key
takeaways:
●
The declaration was announced at the World
Climate Action Summit, according to the COP28 official website.
●
“The declaration was developed with the
support of a number of ‘country champions’ including Brazil, Malawi, the UK,
the Netherlands, Kenya, Fiji, Egypt, Sierra Leone, and Germany,” the website
says.
Declaration
on Climate and Health:
●
The declaration encourages governments to
protect communities and prepare healthcare systems to handle health issues
caused by climate-related impacts like extreme heat, air pollution, and
infectious diseases.
Signed
by:
●
The declaration has been signed by 123
countries.
●
India
and the US are not the ones among these countries.
Reason
for India not signing the declaration:
●
India has not signed the declaration as
the draft talks about going beyond the health sector and ensuring
de-carbonisation to reduce emissions.
●
This links certain aspects of our
healthcare system such as cold storage for vaccines to carbon emissions, which
India opposes.