According to a Call for Action statement released by the United Nations (UN) agencies, the situation warrants urgent attention ahead of the global Conference of the Parties (COP28) negotiations on climate change in Dubai. The document is titled Protecting maternal, newborn and child health from the impacts of climate change. According to the document shared with PREMIUM TIMES, the effects of climate events on maternal and child health ”have been neglected, underreported and underestimated”.
The report describes this as “a glaring omission and emblematic of the inadequate attention to the needs of women, newborns, and children in the climate change discourse”. “Climate change poses an existential threat to all of us, but pregnant women, babies and children face some of the gravest consequences of all,” Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director General for Universal Health Coverage, Life Course at the World Health Organization (WHO) was quoted in the statemen