BEIJING: Chinese experts have called for more investment and adaptive measures to mitigate the health risks caused by climate change, as recent extreme heat waves have caused rising deaths globally.
Huang Cunrui, professor from Tsinghua University’s Vanke School of Public Health, told a forum in Beijing on Wednesday that adaptation and mitigation are necessary to protect people’s health from climate-related risks. However, current funding for adapting to climate change in the health sector accounts for very little among climate finance projects, he said.
“Net benefits from well-protected health such as a reduction in hospitalizations, morbidity and premature deaths, can outweigh the economic costs of mitigation measures,” he said.
“Climate change is expected to significantly increase people’s exposure to heat waves globally.
That will cause malnutrition and even child mortality especially in Africa and Asia due to water security problems and reduced food productivity as a result of droughts, floods and loss of soil nutrition,” he said. Climate change has also increased the risk of getting infectious diseases in many parts of the world and displaces more than 20 million people each year due to severe floods and storms with the hardest-hit region being Asia.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
