The Africa Centre for Disease Control has its eyes fixed on the next Conference of Parties (COP 28) meeting in Dubai at the end of the year to secure the place of the health agenda in climate talks.

Yesterday, the centre, housed at the Africa Union headquarters in Ethiopia, lobbied the Africa Climate Summit to establish a position to have the health agenda prioritised at the December 2023 Climate talks in Abu Dhabi. “We have talked enough and now it’s time for action and the actions have to be tangible,” Africa CDC acting director Dr Ahamed Ogwell told journalists on the sidelines of the summit.

Promote action

Africa CDC and partners are hoping future climate talks will prioritise health. “We cannot discuss development without looking after the health of populations as they are at the centre of the production processes,” he said.

On Tuesday at a side event, it emerged that the health agenda has been pushed to the periphery as the world discussed the impact of climate change in the scope of development and agriculture.

Discussions at a meeting in a Nairobi hotel called for an end to discussions, and promote action.

Participants in the meeting, mainly health experts, said Africa must do more to safeguard its health security on the basis of lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic as well as Ebola and Monkeypox outbreaks.

These three pandemics, according to the experts, underlined the need for increased self-reliance in the continent’s health systems.

There was a general feeling yesterday that if there was to be a moment when the continent had an opportunity to have the health agenda in future climate meetings, was the climate talks in Nairobi.

“We have been talking a lot about climate change, and health issue has not been a priority,” Dr Ogwell said.

New challenges

Statistics with the Africa CDC show that 23 per cent of the global disease is attributed to climate change and 29 per cent of this comes from Sub Saharan Africa. “Public health emergencies attributable to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases have increased nearly fourfold over the past 60 years,” Dr Ogwell said.

The Africa CDC says Climate Change is an immediate and escalating threat to public health in Africa, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and creating new challenges.

Head of Laboratory Systems at the institution Dr Yenew Kebede said the rise of zoonotic diseases and heightened incidence of vector- and water-borne illnesses are posing a formidable challenge to human well-being and safety in the region.

In Africa, more than 100 disease outbreaks and other health events are reported annually.