COP29 action on health 'a matter of life and death': WHO

GENEVA:

Climate change makes people ill and urgent action is a matter of life and death, the WHO said on Thursday, insisting health should be centre stage at this month's international climate negotiations.

The World Health Organization highlighted in a new report published ahead of the November 11-22 COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan how extreme weather events were costing lives and fuelling disease.

There has been growing focus on the health impacts of global heating at the annual United Nations climate talks, with last year's COP28 in Dubai for the first time including a day focused on health.

The Baku summit will be the last UN climate summit before Donald Trump's return as United States president in January.

Trump has long denounced climate change as a "hoax".

During his 2017-2021 term as president, he withdrew from the landmark Paris Agreement on curbing global heating -- and began pulling the United States out of the WHO, accusing the UN health agency of being a puppet of China.

Trump has pledged to reverse the more climate-friendly policies of outgoing US President Joe Biden, under whom the US rejoined the Paris Agreement.

Trump's threat to again walk away from this international effort to curb global heating adds to the sense of urgency for the UN summit to push through agreements before he becomes US president for a second time.

The WHO report put the links between climate and health in abrupt language, citing recent disasters.

"Climate change is making us sick, and urgent action is a matter of life and death," it said.

"From the direct effects of extreme weather and air pollution to the indirect consequences of ecosystem disruption and social instability, climate change threatens physical and mental health, well-being, and life itself.