Earth Today | Down but never out

WHILE THE disappointment of the November climate talks (COP29) sinks in for small island developing states (SIDS), findings from a recent assessment of their health vulnerabilities to climate change make it clear that they must persist in their advocacy for support from rich countries.

The 2024 Small Island Developing States Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change has painted a picture of SIDS in urgent need of sustained, quality interventions to preserve public health, including attention to heat stress and food security.

“The growing risk of heat exposure has become one of many prominent economic pressures affecting SIDS.Labour productivity and healthy lives are undermined by

increasing temperatures, with more than 4.4 billion potential labour hours lost in 2023, compared with an annual average of 2.5 billion hours in 1991–2000,” revealed the report, undertaken by a group of researchers, including Dr Georgiana Gordon-Strachan of the Caribbean Institute for Health Research.

“In 2022, reductions in labour capacity from health-threatening heat exposure brought potential earning losses equivalent to 2.1 per cent of the average gross domestic product of SIDS,” it added.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has itself flagged heat stress and its impact on workers as requiring an urgent response. That report references the risks to workers’ health, as well as to the economic resilience.

WORRYING TRENDS

Titled Heat at Work: Implications for Safety and Health, the ILO report makes the case for appropriate planning for the intensification of excessive heat associated with climate change while noting that nine of 10 worker exposures to excessive heat, and eight out of 10 occupational injures are linked to excessive heat occur outside of a heatwave.

“The cases attributed to heat exposure at work constitute about three per cent of all chronic kidney disease cases, ranging from 3.34 per cent in Africa to 1.8 per cent in the Americas,” the ILO report explained.

According to the Lancet report, the situation affecting food security is such that “compared with the annual average in 1981–2010, in 2022 an additional 2.6 million people reported moderate or severe food insecurity as a consequence of drought and heatwave days”.

“The risk of undernutrition, especially in low-income and middle-income households, is being exacerbated by climate change,” it said.

According to the SIDS report, there are “worrying” trends toward “import-dependent processed diets and associated high morbidity and mortality attributable to chronic non-communicable diseases” due to “carbon-intensive, unhealthy diets”.

“The widespread health effects of food insecurity and increasing reliance on unhealthy foods are further compounded by the reduced potential for outdoor exercise: even low-intensity physical activity in SIDS was associated with more than three times more risk for extreme heat stress in the past 5 years compared with in 1991–2000,” it added.

RAISING COLLECTIVE AMBITION

SIDS, meanwhile, have complained about the less than satisfactory outcomes from COP29, and in particular the failure to secure a deal that reflects a commitment to the provision of financial support for the developing world to the tune of the needed US$ 1.3 trillion a year. Instead, what was achieved was the promise of US$300 billion a year by 2035.

In a statement issued in the wake of COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) made it clear it was not prepared to accept that outcome, given the risks to Caribbean and other SIDS.

“As we continue to take stock of COP29, one thing is clear – if we do not want to expedite our own extinction, we must put aside petty geopolitics.The world’s most vulnerable cannot be held hostage by bigger countries. Inclusivity and respect for our voices at the table are paramount at COP30,” said AOSIS, which represents the interests of 39 small island and low-lying coastal nations in climate change and sustainable development negotiations.

“We must get serious about raising collective ambition, drastically cutting emissions, and advancing action on mitigation. On climate finance, the lack of ambition from developed countries has further eroded the faith of the developing world,” AOSIS added.

Still, despite that eroded trust, AOSIS said they would press on.

“The COP process is important to SIDS because it is the only forum globally where our voice matters. We must ensure smaller countries are empowered, not held hostage by the process,” AOSIS insisted.

“We are determined to turn our disappointment into energy that will drive unparalleled ambition and action ahead of COP30,” it added.

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