From disaster response to climate impacts: How health is being integrated in PH's climate action

At the second and final week of the 29th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP29), representatives from the Department of Health (DOH) led by Undersecretary Gloria Balboa, joined the official Philippine delegation to make a case for health in climate action.

This is only the second time that the DOH joined the country delegation at COP, where health has become a hot topic. 

In a statement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said "The climate crisis is also a health crisis. Human health and planetary health are intertwined. Countries must take meaningful action to protect their people, boost resources, cut emissions, phase out fossil fuels, and make peace with nature."

"COP29 must drive progress towards those vital goals for the planet’s health and for people’s health," he added.

Speaking to GMA News Online, Usec Balboa echoed the World Health Organization (WHO) in saying health is the argument for climate. "Climate change can be vague sa mga tao but if you relate it to its effect on health, people understand it better,” she said.

The WHO released a COP29 health report just ahead of the negotiations earlier this month, where it said noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) caused about 41 million deaths a year or 74% of total deaths, with climate change and air pollution increasing the risks for NCDs. And while air pollution has been linked to nearly 7 million premature deaths, climate change has forced people to “face a record 50 more days of health-threatening heat in 2023.”

In the Philippines, the interconnectedness of health and climate first became clear back in 2009 when Tropical Storm Ondoy hit Manila. "That was unprecedented," Dr. Ronald Law of the DOH told GMA News Online in Baku.

"It was just a tropical storm, it was not even a bagyo, but its impacts were immense. It is considered a health issue kasi maraming namatay. Hospitals were affected and it led to a lepto outbreak. It was a public health issue that was clearly related to the environment."

[It was just a tropical storm. It wasn't even a typhoon but its impacts were immense. It is considered a health issue because so many people died. Hospitals were affected and it led to a lepto outbreak. It was a public health issue that was clearly related to the environment.] 

And then there is heat, that is slowly searing the world and affecting health in a different manner. "Pag masyado mataas ang temperature, pwedeng directly magkaroon ng health issues, lalo na yung may mga pre-existing illnesses, and vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, pregnant women, and certain workers like construction workers, drivers, traffic enforcers, farmers, fisherfolk," Law continued.

[In extreme heat, there could be health issues especially among those with pre-existing illnesses and vulnerable groups like the elderly, children, pregnant women, and certain workers like construction workers, drivers, traffic enforcers, farmers and fisherfolk.]

According to an ADB report on Extreme Heat, Asia is warming faster than the global average, and studies from 2000-2019 reveal 45% of the global annual average of 489,000 heat-related deaths occur in the continent.

"These are direct impacts on health. Recently, we've also been learning about climate change's indirect impacts on health. For instance, climate change can impact food because nasisira ang agriculture. So that affects our nutrition and food security. Climate change also affects water — that can lead to more water borne diseases,” Law said.

In a bigger scale, climate change and global warming are affecting energy consumption, bringing problems to health operations at hospitals and clinics.

“We call these ‘nexus areas’ and we have to talk about this because in the end, this can affect people’s health,” he continues. “traditionally, that’s what’s associated with the health side of climate.”

Simply put, this is the adaptation, where “we are managing the negative health consequences to people,” is "traditionally what's associated with health and climate," Law said.

But DOH brings up another facet to health and climate to the table: Mitigation. “Around 5% of total global emissions is from the healthcare industry so something must be done,” Law said.

While some countries like Singapore has started the decarbonization of its health care industry, the Philippines is not there yet. Instead, it is beginning to go through something of a transition. “Aside from looking at the emergency side, we are also looking at a climate resilient, low carbon, and sustainable health system.”

According to DOH’s Dr. Bituin Reyes, the country started with the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan 2020-2040 (PHFD), where resilience is already included. “We weren’t just looking at gaps based on demand, but we were also looking at, we have to fill in the fact that our facilities needed to be climate-resilient,” she said.

From the PHFD, the DOH came up with the Green and Safe Health Facilities Manual in 2021.

“Our target was to have 50% of the 400 government hospitals to be recognized as green and safe. Our target is 220 hospitals by 2028 and last year, we reached 25%, so we are ahead of targets by 2 years,” she proudly said.

And finally, there is cross-sectoral collaboration. “How can the health sector promote the health co-benefits? For example, transport. We want to reduce carbon footprint — for  people to not take their vehicles. So you have active transport. You highlight its co-benefit to health, which is good for physical activity. But it’s not simple. There are many issues — people don’t go out because it’s so hot, there’s not enough tress, there’s a road risk safety issue. May issues sa public transport that you have to communicate to design those solutions together,” Law said.

DOH’s three-pronged approach of integrating health within climate plans — addressing health impacts or adaptation, strengthening health systems or mitigation, and promoting co-benefits — is very much aligned with what the WHO laid down in the COP29 special report on climate and health, which Dr. Vanessa Kerry, WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Climate Change Health said “exposes how the accelerating climate and health crisis impacts more than just our health.”

“As leaders gather for COP29, we urge them to fast-track a just transition and increase funding for health systems and frontline health workers to protect the most vulnerable. Health must be central in climate discussions," she said in a statement.

Usec. Balboa agreed, saying, "adaptation and mitigation will entail additional costs so kailangan talaga maipasok yan as a priority. Initially, they are more expensive but in the long run, we will see their benefits.."

The integration of the health within the climate plans echoes DOH’s three areas of transformation — namely from purely adaptation to including mitigation, from only relying on services and health facilities to including the community in different public health programs, and finally from just expecting at DOH to do all the work related to health, to the health department working cross-sectorally with different government agencies. In particular, DOH highlighted the support it has been getting from the Department of Energy for its mitigation plans.

“We are making health the argument for climate action,” said Law, who will head the newly established health and climate change division of the DOH. “Nomenclature [of the office] has yet to be finalized but we are already laying down the ground work," he said.

— RSJ, GMA Integrated News

This story was produced as part of the COP29 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.