AI Article Synopsis

  • Women, children, and adolescents in low and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by climate change, despite being the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Investment in their health can alleviate climate-related inequities and yield significant health and economic benefits.
  • Current climate policies often overlook women's, children's, and adolescents' health, necessitating innovative financing strategies that integrate health and climate goals to improve access and resilience.

Article Abstract

Women, children and adolescents (WCA), especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), will bear the worst consequences of climate change during their lifetimes, despite contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. Investing in WCA can address these inequities in climate risk, as well as generating large health, economic, social and environmental gains. However, women's, children's and adolescents' health (WCAH) is currently not mainstreamed in climate policies and financing. There is also a need to consider new and innovative financing arrangements that support WCAH alongside climate goals.We provide an overview of the threats climate change represents for WCA, including the most vulnerable communities, and where health and climate investments should focus. We draw on evidence to explore the opportunities and challenges for health financing, climate finance and co-financing schemes to enhance equity and protect WCAH while supporting climate goals.WCA face threats from the rising burden of ill-health and healthcare demand, coupled with constraints to healthcare provision, impacting access to essential WCAH services and rising out-of-pocket payments for healthcare. Climate change also impacts on the economic context and livelihoods of WCA, increasing the risk of displacement and migration. These impacts require additional resources to support WCAH service delivery, to ensure continuity of care and protect households from the costs of care and enhance resilience. We identify a range of financing solutions, including leveraging climate finance for WCAH, adaptive social protection for health and adaptations to purchasing to promote climate action and support WCAH care needs.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11057322PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-014596DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

climate change
16
climate
12
support wcah
12
opportunities challenges
8
women's children's
8
children's adolescents'
8
adolescents' health
8
climate finance
8
wcah
7
health
6

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!