cop on health and climate

Third Global Conference on Health and Climate

In 2018, WHO will hold the Third Global Conference on Climate and Health. Taking an innovative, geographically dispersed approach, the Conference will be held in three locations, in the Pacific (Nadi, Fiji; 15-16 March), the Indian Ocean (St Louis, Mauritius; 21-22 March), and the Caribbean (Grenada; October 2018), and will be accompanied by a webinar organized in partnership with Health Canada (29 March).

Together, the meetings will bring together Government representatives from over 40 of the most vulnerable countries and territories in the world, with WHO, other UN partners and technical experts to advance global action on climate change and health.

Also a formal launch of the special initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

The Conference will also constitute a formal launch in each of the regions of the special initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), launched by WHO, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Government of Fiji, at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in November 2017.

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Objective of the conference

The objective of these three workshops is to develop, in consultation with Member States and other key stakeholders, a draft action plan for the SIDS Initiative with the following areas of action:

• Empowerment - supporting health leadership in island countries to integrate health into national climate change planning and engage in international climate change negotiations;
• Evidence - producing country profiles of climate change and health, describing vulnerabilities and adaptation options (e.g. morbidity and mortality attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene, malnutrition, disasters);
• Implementation - building climate-resilient health systems, including the strengthening of governance and policy, integration of climate early warning systems with health information systems, preventive and curative service delivery, and disaster-proof and smart health-care facilities; and
• Resources - facilitating access to climate and health financing mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility to support climate resilient health systems of island countries.

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