Climate change to cause 250, 000 additional deaths annually

The World Health Organisation says between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause an estimated 250, 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone.

According to WHO, the direct damage cost to health is estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion by 2030, saying that areas with weak health infrastructure, especially in developing countries, will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.

“Climate change is impacting human lives and health in a variety of ways. It threatens the essential ingredients of good health – clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter – and has the potential to undermine decades of progress in global health,” WHO said.

According to the global health body, greenhouse gas emissions that result from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels are major contributors to both climate change and air pollution.

It noted that many policies and individual measures, such as transport, food and energy use choices, have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce major health co-benefits, particularly by abating air pollution.

“The phase out of polluting energy systems, for example, or the promotion of public transportation and active movement, could both lower carbon emissions and cut the burden of household and ambient air pollution, which cause seven million premature deaths per year,” the global health body added.

A Climate change expert, Dr. Akanimo Odon, said Africa stands a chance to benefit from her low emissions through carbon credit, noting that Africa could trade on carbon for huge amounts of money.

The Head, African Partnership, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, said it was high time African nations gravitate more to renewable energy to maximise benefits from the climate crisis.

“And because Africa is not contributing a lot to carbon emissions, Africa is in a unique opportunity to benefit from the global forum, where you can actually trade on carbon.

“We have the best opportunity to be renewable in our activities and in our system and to also offer new opportunities,” he said.

According to him, through carbon crediting such as planting trees to absorb carbon, African countries could earn money for saving the planet.

He urged individuals and corporate organisations to raise awareness around these benefits so that the continent could draw from these benefits.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator, Climate Justice and Energy Programme Coordinator, Friends of the Earth International, Ubrei-Joe Maimoni, lamented the state of climate justice in Africa, saying 67 years of oil extraction in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has left people in polluted environments and complete darkness.

Maimoni, who is also the Programme Manager for Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, said the FoEA believes that a Just Recovery Renewable Energy Plan for Africa is urgently needed to address all the impacts of the multiple interrelated crises across the continent.

This plan, he said, must be built on environmental, social, gender and economic justice.

While calling on the global North not to let Africa burn, the climate activist stated that it is obvious that Africa had witnessed the worst cases of climate disasters such as cyclones, flooding, drought and desertification among others.

The activist maintained that it is essential that Africa moves away from harmful fossil fuels towards a transformed energy system that is clean, renewable, democratic and actually serves its people.