Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to announce the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23. Climate change continues to be a growing threat to human health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), climate change is directly contributing to humanitarian emergencies from heatwaves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes and they are increasing in scale, frequency and intensity.
Research shows that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone.
It is important to highlight that the direct damage costs to health (excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation) are estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030, as per WHO.
As a country whose population faces several socio-economic vulnerabilities, India is more prone to exposure to climate change impacts.
During the Interim Budget 2024, unveiled plans for the launch of Blue Economy 2.0, which is focused at promoting climate-resilient activities and sustainable development in coastal areas. She also said that India will solarise the rooftops of 10 million households and provide viability gap funding for harnessing offshore wind energy potential with an initial capacity of one gigawatt to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
The Interim Budget 2024 had a larger allocation and included announcements highlighting a focus on mitigation measures. Meanwhile, public health experts maintain that there is a need to increase investments in health systems with a focus on climate adaptability.
“Already healthcare is stretched beyond means. Investments need to go towards health systems being adaptable to climate and especially extreme weather events. Clean Cooling, flood and earthquake adaptive, consistent quality energy and transportation are all under invested areas. In addition, investments in robust collaborative surveillance systems will act as an insurance to the current health system in defending against poly-crises,” Dr. Angela Chaudhuri, Chief Catalyst of Swasti and a public health specialist told Financial Express.com.
Meanwhile, Himanshu Sikka, Project Director, SAMRIDH and Chief Strategy and Diversification Officer, IPE Global revealed that as global temperatures continue to rise, India faces an imminent surge in public health challenges that will exert unprecedented pressure on our already strained healthcare system.
“Heatwaves, becoming more frequent and intense, not only significantly reduce productivity but also pose life-threatening risks such as heat strokes. The warming climate, coupled with increased flooding and rising sea levels, is altering the transmission patterns of various infectious diseases. Vector-borne illnesses like dengue and malaria are expanding their geographical reach, while water-borne diseases are seeing more frequent outbreaks in flood-affected areas. Furthermore, the impact on agriculture due to changing weather patterns threatens food security and nutrition, potentially increasing rates of malnutrition and related health issues,” Sikka told Financial Express.com.
With only 30 percent of medical resources available to over half the population residing in rural areas, we stand at the tipping point, he said. According to WHO, All aspects of health are affected by climate change, from clean air, water and soil to food systems and livelihoods.
Further delay in tackling climate change will increase health risks, undermine decades of improvements in global health, and contravene the collective commitments to ensure the human right to health for all, the global health agency states.
“There’s an urgent need to propel digital health infrastructure in these underserved regions to maximize coverage and ensure utmost support to the existing facilities. While increasing government healthcare spending is imperative, it alone is insufficient. The need of the hour is to attract private players and commercial capital to the sector, bridging existing gaps in areas where low-profit margins deter private service providers. The government must, therefore, chart the course for blended and innovative finance mechanisms to catalyze investments in healthcare,” he told Financial Express.com.
According to Sikka, by strategically unlocking avenues for innovative finance, the government can drive sustainable innovation and lay a solid foundation for resilient, low-emitting, and adaptive healthcare infrastructure capable of withstanding future climate shocks.
“With decisive action now, universal health coverage may well be within reach,” he added.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) highlights that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones, the panel found.
It is noteworthy that climate change is impacting health in several ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, storms and floods, the disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues.
