World Bank Group

11/18/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/16/2024 18:20

The Global Cost of Climate-Health Inaction: Price Tag and Role of Public & Private Sectors

The cost of climate inaction isn't just in dollars, but in human lives. Join the World Bank Group as they present new evidence on the magnitude of the climate-health crisis and invite public and private sector voices to discuss how to scale climate-health finance and action.

This event will present the findings of the World Bank's Global Cost of Inaction (COI) assessment, showcasing a new estimate of the economic damage and human toll that could result from climate impacts on health if the world fails to respond to the climate crisis. By highlighting the alarming estimate of climate change's impacts in the health sector, this event aims to increase adaptation action. The discussion will elevate the urgency to maximize climate-health investments emphasizing the role of governments, the private sector, civil society and development partners in scaling up finance to meet country needs and demands while maintaining a focus on  targets, including emission reduction targets.  

The event will focus on:

  1. Understanding climate-health risk
  2. What constitutes a good climate-health investment
  3. What countries are already asking for and doing in terms of interventions and solutions.

Public and private sector voices, as well as civil society, will discuss mechanisms to avert the health costs of climate inaction. The panel of critical stakeholder voices will raise awareness about the urgent needs and existing opportunities for scaling climate-health financing and action at the country level.

Speakers

  • Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate
    Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Nigeria

    Muhammad Ali Pate is the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare in Nigeria. He leads Nigeria's Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative to improve the health of all Nigerians.

    Until August 2023, he was the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at Harvard University's Chan School and Co-chair of the Future of Health and Economic Resilience in Africa (FHERA).

    He served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population for the World Bank Group from 2019 to 2021, where he led the health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also led Big Win Philanthropy from 2015 to 2018 and served as a visiting professor at Duke University's Global Health Institute from 2013 to 2015.

    As Nigeria's Minister of State for Health (2011-2013), Dr. Pate made significant contributions to polio eradication, vaccine introduction, and primary healthcare through the Save One Million Lives initiative. He also served as the CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) from 2008-2011.

    He earned his MBBS degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and underwent postgraduate training at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Additionally, he holds a Master of Science in Health Systems Management from University College London and an MBA from Duke University.

  • Dr. Githinji Gitahi
    CEO, Amref Health Africa

    Dr. Githinji Gitahi joined Amref Health Africa in 2015. He has worked in various positions within the health, media, and private sectors. Prior to joining Amref, he served as the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at Smile Train International. Dr. Gitahi is renowned as a leader on both the global and regional fronts, with notable achievements including co-chairing the global UHC2030 movement, serving on the Commission on Africa's COVID-19 Response, and formerly serving on the Governing Board of Africa CDC and Board of National Cancer Institute. Additionally, he serves on the Board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Board of Trustees of the Safaricom Foundation, and Board of the Food for Education. He was recently appointed to the Independent Board of the Lancet Countdown. Dr. Gitahi is a vocal advocate for pro-poor Universal Health Coverage and leads the largest thought leadership convening on the African health agenda.

  • Ms. Amita Chaudhury
    Head of Sustainability, AIA Group

    Amita Chaudhury is the Group Head of Sustainability at AIA, the largest pan-Asian life insurance group.

    Amita has devoted her career to promoting sustainability and DE&I for more than twenty years. Since joining AIA in 2021, she has driven the Group's ESG integration across AIA's functions and markets, refreshed the Group's ESG Strategy and set AIA on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

    Prior to AIA, Amita spent over a decade at Unilever to embed sustainable practices across its portfolio of leading consumer brands as Head of Sustainable Business for Southeast Asia and Australia, and before that, as Global Diversity & Inclusion Director. In 2019, she was seconded from Unilever to the United Nations Global Compact as a senior advisor on sustainability learning.

    In 2018, Amita was recognised by the World Business Council of Sustainable Development as a "Leading Women in Sustainability" and more recently, named a finalist in the Sustainability Leader of the Year category in the Sustainability Leaders' World Sustainability Awards.

  • Dr. Maria Neira
    Director of Environment, climate change and health. WHO

    Maria Neira joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993 as the Coordinator of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control. In 1999, she became the Director of the Department of Control, Prevention and Eradication. She was then appointed as the Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health in 2005. During her career, Maria also worked with Médecins Sans Frontières in refugee camps in Central America.

    Maria served as the Vice Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs in Spain, as President of the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency, as the Public Health Adviser of the Ministry of Health in Mozambique, and as the United Nations Public Health Advisor/Physician for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Rwanda.

    Maria studied medicine and surgery at the University of Oviedo. She specialized in endocrinology and metabolic diseases at the Université René Déscartes. In addition, she holds a master's degree in Public Health, a diploma in Human Nutrition from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and an international diploma in Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management form the University of Geneva. In 2016, she received the "Inspirational Women in Geneva Working for the Environment" award, in additional to other international awards in France and Spain.

Moderator

  • Global Program Lead for Climate and Health, World Bank

    Dr. Tamer Rabie is the Global Program Lead for Climate and Health at the World Bank. He joined the Bank in 2005 and has since been leading lending as well as advisory services programs in more than thirty countries across all regions, including those characterized by fragility, conflict and violence. He has over twenty-five years of wide-ranging policy, public health and health systems experience including in climate change, nutrition, reproductive health, service delivery, governance, the private sector, and environmental health. As a medical doctor and public health specialist, he has always remained acutely aware that addressing global health challenges transcends the confines of healthcare alone and necessitates a comprehensive approach encompassing social, economic, and environmental policies, among others. Having worked on the nexus of climate and health since 2008, he has helped the World Bank shape its vision on climate action.

    In his current role as the Global Program Lead for Climate and Health, Dr. Rabie leads the World Bank's efforts in addressing the climate-health crisis by scaling country tailored solutions, delivering global public goods, and forging partnerships with other development partners, the private sector and civil society organizations.

    Tamer Rabie