COP27 Climate Change Conference: Urgent action needed for Africa and the world

Wealthy nations must step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present and future impacts of climate change.The 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a dark picture of the future of life on earth, characterised by ecosystem collapse, species extinction, and climate hazards such as heatwaves and floods. These are all linked to physical and mental health problems, with direct and indirect consequences of increased morbidity and mortality. To avoid these catastrophic health effects across all regions of the globe, there is broad agreement—as 231 health journals argued together in 2021—that the rise in global temperature must be limited to less than 1.5oC compared with pre-industrial levels. While the Paris Agreement of 2015 outlines a global action framework that incorporates providing climate finance to developing countries, this support has yet to materialise. COP27 is the fifth Conference of the Parties (COP) to be organised in Africa since its inception in 1995. Ahead of this meeting, we—as health journal editors from across the continent—call for urgent action to ensure it is the COP that finally delivers climate justice for Africa and vulnerable countries. This is essential not just for the health of those countries, but for the health of the whole world

COP27 CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: URGENT ACTION NEEDED FOR AFRICA AND THE WORLD

Wealthy nations must step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present and future impacts of climate chang

COP27 climate change conference: Urgent action needed for Africa and the world

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COP27 Climate Change Conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world

No abstract

COP27 Climate Change Conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world

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COP27 climate change conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world : Wealthy nations must step up support for Africa and vulnerable countries in addressing past, present and future impacts of climate change

https://academic.oup.com/ajcpNursing Scienc

COP27 Climate Change Conference: Urgent action needed for Africa and the world

The 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a dark picture of the future of life on earth, characterised by ecosystem collapse, species extinction, and climate hazards such as heatwaves and floods (1). These are all linked to physical and mental health problems, with direct and indirect consequences of increased morbidity and mortality. To avoid these catastrophic health effects across all regions of the globe, there is broad agreement—as 231 health journals argued together in 2021—that the rise in global temperature must be limited to less than 1.5oC compared with pre-industrial levels.  While the Paris Agreement of 2015 outlines a global action framework that incorporates providing climate finance to developing countries, this support has yet to materialise (2). COP27 is the fifth Conference of the Parties (COP) to be organised in Africa since its inception in 1995. Ahead of this meeting, we—as health journal editors from across the continent—call for urgent action to ensure it is the COP that finally delivers climate justice for Africa and vulnerable countries. This is essential not just for the health of those countries, but for the health of the whole world. Read more in the PDF..

Congenital disorders: epidemiological methods for answering calls for action.

The importance of congenital disorders (also called birth defects) as a cause of early death and disability becomes increasingly apparent as countries pass through the development window and background mortality falls (Malherbe et al. 2015). Consequently, there is growing recognition of the need for their care and prevention, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In 2010, the World Health Assembly (WHA) expressed concern that birth defects are still not recognised as a priority in public health, and called upon its member states to strengthen the prevention of congenital disorders and provision of care for those affected (World Health Assembly 2010). Nevertheless, the 2015 International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the Developing World concluded that “as the Sustainable Development Goals are adopted by United Nations member states, children with congenital disorders remain left behind in policies, programs, research, and funding” (Darmstadt et al. 2016). In fact, two WHO regional offices (those for the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia) have responded to the call from World Health Assembly. In the process, both have encountered important barriers to the development of health policy in this area. Firstly, policy requires a sound epidemiological base, but in most middle- and low-income countries, the combination of (a) limited resources for the correct and accurate diagnosis of congenital disorders and (b) inadequate information systems leads to gross under-estimation of the contribution of congenital disorders to early death and disability (Christianson et al. 2006; Christianson and Modell 2004; World Health Organization 1999). Secondly, the extreme diversity of congenital disorders makes them difficult to grasp collectively at a strategic public health level. Thirdly, these problems are compounded by failure to agree and implement precise and rigorous technical terminology (World Health Organization 2006). The database described in the following articles—the Modell Global Database of Congenital Disorders (MGDb)—has been developed in order to overcome these barriers to service development