WHO calls on Pacific leaders to make health and climate a high priority at regional leaders’ meeting (2024)

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Western Pacific joined prime ministers and presidents from across the Region and United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting in Tonga this week. At the high-level meeting, Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala called on leaders of Pacific islands and other countries to make health a high priority on their agenda, in the context of the climate catastrophe that is putting the Pacific in peril.

During the PIF Plenary on 28 August, Dr Piukala made the case for putting health on the annual agenda of the Leaders Meeting. He highlighted three areas in particular. First, he emphasized the urgent need to take action to protect populations in the Pacific from the impacts of climate change on health – specifically, the need for resilient health infrastructure. Dr Piukala noted that a recent review of 76 hospitals in 14 Pacific island countries found that 62% of health facilities were within 500 metres of the sea or a river. This has resulted in health facilities in Fiji, Nauru, Niue and Tonga having to be relocated due to risks of inundation and flooding during extreme weather events.

Second, Dr Piukala called for critical investments in the health workforce. He urged leaders to invest in training and retention of health workers so that they remain in their countries to serve the needs of their populations. Lastly, he called for a major acceleration of efforts to address noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which are responsible for at least 70% of deaths in the Region.

Climate change as a major focus

Climate change was a major focus of the PIF meeting, with wide recognition by the leaders of the devastation it is causing to a region already prone to natural disasters and emergencies.

On the first day of the meeting, when heavy rainfall and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Tonga, Dr Piukala said: "This is a reminder for all of us of how important it is to work together to strengthen disaster preparedness and climate resilience.”

According to recent reports, tropical cyclones account for 76% of disasters in the Pacific, driving several health impacts including infrastructure damage, injury and death. Across the South-West Pacific¹, hydrometeorological hazard events – such as storms and floods – resulted in more than 200 deaths and affected the lives of more than 25 million people last year alone.

During the meeting this week, Secretary-General Guterres launched a new technical brief on surging seas in a warming world. “I am in Tonga to issue a global SOS – Save Our Seas. The world must act, and answer the SOS before it is too late…If we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves,” said Secretary-General Guterres. The brief describes the potentially devastating effects of climate-driven coastal hazards and sea-level rise on coastal ecosystems and the economic sector. “Such impacts are already or are likely to create risks to livelihoods, settlements, health and wellbeing, food and water security,” said Secretary-General Guterres.

WHO’s work with countries

WHO is working with governments and partners across the Region to make health systems and communities more climate resilient including the recent work in Fiji, focusing on health-care facilities assessment, as well as in Kiribati and Vanuatu. In Kiribati, WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in implementing the four-year Te Mamauri project – which received US$ 6 million in funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency − to increase the climate resilience of the health system, including retrofitting health facilities with solar energy, assessing drinking water quality and facilitating community empowerment to take adaptive action to reduce the health risks of climate change. And after Vanuatu was hit by tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin in March 2023, WHO and the Ministry of Health established a multisectoral One Health Committee to address the health impacts of leptospirosis outbreaks.

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