*Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE)
Esteemed representatives of the Philippine Government and the Diplomatic Corps;
Friends from the media;
Distinguished participants;
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good morning and welcome to this hybrid celebration of World Health Day. Thank you very much for joining us.
This World Health Day, we couldn't organize this face-to-face World Health Day celebration since 2019. So I'm so happy to have several ambassadors from the diplomatic community here with us in person today. Thank you very much.
We have learned a lot during COVID-19. Health and peoples’ lives and the broader wellbeing of societies are inextricably linked. In today’s interconnected world, one risk is really connected to other risks like a web.
Recently, the UN Secretary General labelled the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a “code red for humanity”. It is also a code red for health, as our health and wellbeing are closely linked with the planet’s health. That is why the theme of this year’s World Health Day is “Our planet, our health.”
If we don’t take action today, we are risking our health in the future. Our children and our children’s children will suffer the most.
Climate change is one of the biggest crises faced by humanity today. The climate crisis is also a health crisis since climate change affects health in many different ways.
For example, 3.5 million deaths across the Western Pacific each year are due to avoidable environmental causes.
Every 14 seconds a person dies from air pollution in the Region, and far too many people breathe unhealthy levels of outdoor air pollution, largely resulting from the burning of the fossil fuels that are driving climate change.
In 2020 and 2021 – two of the seven warmest years on record – record-breaking droughts, heatwaves, typhoons, floods, and wildfires challenged the ability of health systems in the Western Pacific to protect and save lives from COVID-19, while simultaneously responding to climate-related emergencies.
Pollution and plastics can be found at the bottom of our deepest oceans and on top of the highest mountains, and have made their way into our food chain.
And actually there are many more pathways through which climate change has consequences for our health.
If we don’t take action today on the planet’s health, we’re putting our future health at risk. When health is at risk, everything's at risk. That’s what we learned from COVID-19.
When I participated in the Pacific Health Ministers meeting two weeks ago and listened to the discussion on climate change, I recalled a moment in Kiribati, a remote island, with one of my staff. She stared quietly at the area close to ocean, and told me and pointed into the empty wetland, and told me, “This is where the village I was born used to exist.”
Every country and area in our vast Region experiences the effects of climate change in different ways. Pacific Islands have the smallest carbon footprint but bear the biggest burden from climate change.
Each year, small island developing states, including Pacific Island countries and areas, make up two thirds of the countries worldwide that suffer the highest relative losses from disasters.
Rising sea levels and increasing tropical storms are reducing access to fresh water, degrading beaches and reefs, taking the land where homes and hospitals once stood, and, ultimately, threatening the lives and livelihoods of the people in the Pacific.
Health systems on these islands are the main line of defense not only against COVID-19, but also against climate-related shocks and stressors.
Many of the health facilities that are part of these systems are actually vulnerable, as they are built near coastlines, and access to reliable, safe water supplies and sustainable energy pose further challenges.
Protecting health from climate and environmental change is a key priority in our regional vision, For the Future. The impacts of climate and environmental change are already affecting our people and are anticipated to cause even more impact in the future. The time to act is now.
There are many actions we can take. All of us – individuals, those of us in the health sector, and sectors beyond health – have a role to play to reduce environmental degradation, and thereby the impact on health.
While the health sector must contend with many of the problems caused by climate and environmental changes, it has relatively little control over the factors that cause these problems. Clearly, sectors outside of health are in the better position to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions. But in the health sector, we can help them to understand that there are important co-benefits – for health and for other sectors – in doing so and in acting together.
For example, building cities which promote active transport – encouraging people to walk or cycle instead of driving – can lower air pollution, with benefits for respiratory and cardiovascular health. This would also result in higher levels of physical activity, helping to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases.
As WHO, we commit to taking action on what the health sector can do. Minister Waqainabete from Fiji, who you will hear from shortly, emphasized to the Pacific Health Ministers Meeting the importance of taking concrete steps within the health sector towards our larger goals.
We support the efforts of the Ministers in building sustainable, climate-resilient and environmentally-friendly health services to strengthen efforts to tackle the health impacts of climate change and to create stronger, more resilient health systems.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 will not just disappear any time soon, and we should anticipate continuous mutations and surges. The Asia-Pacific Region is now the global epicentre for the Omicron.
Some Member States in our Region are experiencing huge surges, while some Pacific Islands are facing their first instances of community transmission.
In our Region, immediately after COVID-19 started, we connected Member States to learn and improve together in our response. We try our best to stood together with Member States who needed support and provided technical support and guidance and direct support to those Member States.
Now, countries are now responding to the current Omicron surges by fully utilizing what we have learned together over the past two years. With our current tools and systems that can sustainably control COVID-19 repeated surge, we can end the public health emergency.
So far, no countries have reached the red line, or the point at which severe illnesses exceed health system capacity. There are many factors for this, including high vaccination coverage and maintaining of basic public health and social measures. We must continue to strengthen our systems so that they can best respond to repeated surges and mutations, but most importantly, we can be ready for next pandemic.
No one is immune from the effects of climate change. The pandemic is a stark reminder that our health and the systems in place to keep us healthy are fragile. The urgency for everyone to take actions to protect our planet and our health is no longer tomorrow. It’s today.
I’d like to thank the governments and partners who have been providing very strong support to help countries across the Region to do this, in particular supporting countries and areas in the Pacific.
Your support for the delivery of vaccines helped our region to achieve high vaccination coverage and protect the vulnerable, and the information you shared has allowed us to learn together and improve. This experience is an asset of our Western Pacific in responding to COVID-19 and preparing for future pandemics.
Thank you very much again for being here, and I wish you a happy World Health Day.