Pacific islands action plan on climate change and health

The WHO Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States (‎SIDS)‎ was launched in November 2017 by WHO in partnership with the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (‎UNFCCC)‎ and the Government of Fiji, as President of the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a group of developing countries that are small island countries which tend to share similar sustainable development challenges. These include small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on international trade, and fragile environments. Their growth and development is also held back by high communication, energy and transportation costs, irregular international transport volumes, disproportionately expensive public administration and infrastructure due to their small size, and little to no opportunity to create economies of scale.

To implement this SIDS Initiative, WHO consulted the Pacific island countries and areas (‎PICs)‎ and developed the Pacific Islands Action Plan on Climate Change and Health in Nadi, Fiji in March 2018. The Pacific Islands Action Plan was launched by the Pacific health leaders attending at the World Health Assembly in May 2018.

This Action Plan presents the short-term and long-term action items and indicators of four strategic lines of action: (‎1)‎ Empowerment; (‎2)‎ Evidence; (‎3)‎ Implementation; and (‎4)‎ Resources. Through the implementation of this Action Plan, PICs will benefit from the highest-quality and greatest possible political, technical and financial support in protecting Pacific islanders from climate-sensitive diseases and building climate-resilient health systems.

Since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, protecting “human health and welfare” has been recognized as a priority in responding to climate change. The Paris Agreement recognizes “the right to health”, presenting the opportunity to implement the Agreement as a public health treaty. This is particularly relevant to Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which have made minimal contribution to global carbon emissions but are among the most susceptible countries to climate change impacts.

In 2017, at the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UNFCCC in Bonn, WHO launched a Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in SIDS, in collaboration with UNFCCC and the Fijian Presidency of the COP23. The Initiative recognizes that SIDS are in the front line facing a range of acute and long-term risks, including extreme floods, storms, drought and sea-level rise, and increased risks of water-, vector- and food-borne diseases.

The Initiative aims to provide national health authorities in SIDS with the political, technical and financial support, as well as the evidence:

• to better understand and address the effects of climate change on health, including those mediated via climate change impacts on the main determinants of health (e.g. food, air, water and sanitation, and vectors);

• to improve the climate resilience and environmental sustainability of health services; and

• to promote the implementation of climate change mitigation actions by the most polluting sectors (e.g. transport, energy, food and agriculture) that maximize health co-benefits, both within and outside SIDS.

The Initiative will also aim to lead the way in transforming health services in SIDS away from a model of curative services with escalating costs and towards one based on disease prevention, climate resilience, and sustainability. It will also implement approaches for WHO to work in a more integrated way both across its own programmes (e.g. environmental health, workers’ health, health systems strengthening, emergency preparedness and response, food security, and nutrition) and with other partners.

This Action Plan is for the period 2019–2023 and corresponds to the implementation of the WHO Special Initiative on Climate Change and Health in SIDS for Pacific island countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region.