Health Policy Watch

4 days ago | healthpolicy-watch.news | Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Most countries’ climate action plans refer to the health benefits of adaptation and mitigation strategies, such as reduced air pollution, but few actually track them. And as World Environment Day is observed Thursday, global climate commitments remain extraordinarily weak. Only 21 countries out of the 195 parties to the UN Paris Agreement have submitted updated national climate action plans (Nationally Determined Commitments) through the year 2035 – nearly four months after the plans were due.

1 week ago | healthpolicy-watch.news | Disha Shetty

Global temperatures are expected to remain near record levels over the next five years, and there is an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed 2024 as the warmest on record. This is the key takeaway from a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The temperature rise is expected to worsen the climate impacts on countries, their economies, and sustainable development. “We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record.

1 week ago | healthpolicy-watch.news | Elaine Ruth Fletcher

A new WHO Climate and Health Action plan was approved by a key World Health Assembly Committee Tuesday evening – after hours of high-stakes, high drama parliamentary maneuvers by a cluster of oil-rich WHO member states to shelve the plan failed.  WHO Member states accepted the original plan by a vote of 109-0, with 19 absentions. Hours earlier, the WHA rejected a Saudi-led initiative to delay approval of the plan for another year by a vote of 86-23 with 11 abstentions.

1 week ago | healthpolicy-watch.news | Kerry Cullinan

From hospitals facing up to 80% antibiotic resistance to gonorrhoea that is resistant to almost all treatment, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious and growing problem, countries told the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Tuesday. But it has been 10 years since the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance was adopted, and the WHA endorsed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposal to present an updated plan to next year’s assembly.

1 week ago | healthpolicy-watch.news | Disha Shetty

The World Health Assembly delivered a landmark victory for traditional medicine and indigenous cultures Monday evening, approving a strategy that calls for increased investment in research and integrating ancient healing practices into modern healthcare systems worldwide. The approval marks a breakthrough moment for advocates of traditional medicine, with nations across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America celebrating the decision.