Financing Climate Change Adaptation in the Healthcare Sector

BY SEBASTIAN CORDERO MUNIZ

Hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards. These are the destructive forces of nature associated with climate change. When considering the impacts of these disasters, public discourse is often confined to the damage on infrastructure and the economy. This leaves out another important and particularly devastating victim of climate change: health. Climate change and its related impacts are threatening to exacerbate healthcare disparities and reverse the progress made globally on medicine¹. Wildfires cause air pollution, higher temperatures increase the spread of disease, disasters destroy healthcare facilities, and supply chain shortages lead to food scarcity. These are just a few of the many impacts that climate change can have on the health of individuals, communities, and wider social networks without considering the direct death and injury caused by disasters². The World Economic Forum estimates there will be 14.5 million deaths and $12.5 trillion in economic losses by 2030 due to climate change³. The threat of climate change is real, and mitigation and adaptation measures targeting the healthcare sector are crucial in limiting these losses.

There have been many challenges associated with preparing the healthcare sector for climate change. First, there is a severe shortage of resources and funding worldwide for these types of measures. Overall, climate finance amounts to about $1 trillion per year, but estimates say that true spending should amount to over $10 trillion to properly address the magnitude of this crisis⁴. More specifically on the healthcare front, less than 5% of total global climate change spending and less than 1% of climate finance is dedicated to healthcare². Second, there have been many obstacles in the planning and implementation of climate action policies due to competing views, lack of coordination among agencies, and uncertainty in continued funding⁵. Third, most funding goes to mitigating the effects of climate change as opposed to adapting to the effects of climate change⁶. Mitigation involves attempts to reduce the rate of climate change progression, such as transitioning to low-carbon technology. Adaptation focuses on attempts to reduce the effects of climate change, like making existing infrastructure more flood-resistant. While mitigation is important, we must also accept that we are already experiencing the effects of climate change, particularly in the healthcare sector. 

Given these circumstances, how should we tackle this issue? Most importantly, we need to increase the public’s awareness of climate change. Awareness and understanding will lead to further support for climate change policies. These efforts should be concentrated in the areas impacted most by climate change to increase support. Participatory planning efforts in coastal mangrove restoration in Java’s Demak district are an excellent example of community involvement⁷. Concurrently, climate finance must increase, particularly in relation to healthcare. Doing so requires collaborating with various actors including governments, impact investors, philanthropies, and insurance companies. Uganda’s forecast-based financing addressing waterborne disease due to flooding demonstrates how the Red Cross Red Crescent society, local disaster response organizations, and German counterparts can collaborate internationally⁷. Furthermore, we should leverage these actors and partners to push for an increased focus on adaptation in addition to the mitigation of climate change as seen in Canada’s $1.6 billion Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF)⁷. Climate change is currently affecting everything and everyone in some way, and the healthcare effects are particularly disastrous. We must use our full efforts to address this issue. 

Sebastian Cordero Muniz is a sophomore in Ezra Stiles College.

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References

1. Willie, E., et al. T20 Policy Brief: Financing Climate Health and Solutions. The Rockefeller Foundation (2024) https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/reports/t20-policy-brief-financing-climate-and-health-solutions/.
2. Beyeller, N., Guinto, R.R. Closing the Gap on Health-Related Climate Financing. ThinkGlobalHealth (2021) https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/closing-gap-health-related-climate-financing\.
3. World Economic Forum. Climate Crisis May Cause 14.5 Million Deaths by 2050. World Economic Forum (2024) https://www.weforum.org/press/2024/01/wef24-climate-crisis-health/#:~:text=Davos%2DKlosters%2C%20Switzerland%2C%2016,trillion%20in%20economic%20losses%20worldwide.
4. Strinati, C., et al. Top-down Climate Finance Needs. Climate Policy Initiative (2024) https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/top-down-climate-finance-needs/.
5. Borghi, J., et al. Climate and health: a path to strategic co-financing. Health Policy and Planning (2024) https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/39/Supplement_2/i4/7901680. 
6. MIT Climate Portal. Mitigation and Adaptation. MIT Climate Portal (2023) https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/mitigation-and-adaptation. 
7. Global Center on Adaptation. 12 great examples of how countries are adapting to climate change. Global Center on Adaptation (2019) https://gca.org/12-great-examples-of-how-countries-are-adapting-to-climate-change/.