WHO Health and Climate Change Survey Report on inadequacy of funding

A study based on the WHO data from 101 countries highlighted the inadequate action of countries to tackle the impact of climate change on the population’s health. The report says that the countries are increasingly prioritising health and climate in the national policies. Some of the trends highlighted in the study are:

• Half of the surveyed countries have developed a national level plan for tackling health and climate change issues.
• Only 38% of the surveyed countries have resources and finances in place to implement these plans at least to a partial extent.
• Only 10% of the surveyed countries have enough finances to implement these plans completely.
• About 48% of the surveyed countries have conducted surveys of the impact of climate change on national health.
• Nearly 60% of the countries reported that the assessments had no or little impact on the allocation of resources by the government.
• Some of the most commonly identified health risks driven by climate change are heat stress, injury or death from extreme weather events, vector borne, food borne or water borne diseases etc.