Climate change must be addressed from a one health perspective

This assessment was made by participants at an event promoted by FAPESP, the Brazilian Association of State Environmental Agencies, and the Vale Technological Institute during COP30.

By Elton Alisson, from Belém  |  Agência FAPESP – Over the past three years, the Brazilian state of Pará, host of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), has experienced a series of extreme weather events, including droughts and dry spells from 2023 to 2024. These events have led to an increase in the number of fires and the number of patients exposed to smoke who have been treated at health centers and hospitals in the state. 

However, it is not possible to find any notifications of cases of smoke inhalation poisoning in the public information systems for this period, says Roberta Souza, director of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Surveillance at the Pará State Health Secretariat.

“The demand for nebulization in the state’s public health system increased during the period when the fires occurred, but when we searched for a single notification related to this occurrence, we found none. This illustrates the difficulty that still exists in the public health system of countries such as Brazil in relating diseases to environmental conditions,” she said.

“We need to advance our understanding of one health, from the perspective that human beings are part of an environment and that the process of illness is due to changes in the system in which they live,” said Souza at an event on one health, held in parallel with COP30 on November 17 by FAPESP, the Brazilian Association of State Environmental Agencies (ABEMA), and the Vale Technological Institute (ITV). 

The goal of the meeting was to develop a shared agenda on the topic by integrating various approaches to environmental, animal, ecosystem, and human health in climate scenarios while considering the limits and potential of biodiversity.

This concept has gained prominence at recent UN climate conferences due to the realization that climate change is one of the greatest threats to public health this century. Paulo Artaxo, a professor at the University of São Paulo’s Physics Institute (IF-USP) and a member of the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change (RPGCC), pointed this out.  

“The concept of one health basically shows that human life is integrated with the physical, chemical, biological, and economic functioning of our planet as a whole, in its various aspects, and that, therefore, humans are a component of a global ecosystem that’s changing very rapidly. That’s why we must avoid a collapse in the global system,” he said.

Artaxo pointed out that Brazil is one of the countries that will be most affected by global climate change. “A 4 °C temperature increase here in Belém will have a much greater impact on the ecosystem and people’s health than if it happens in Stockholm, Montreal, or Moscow,” he compared. “We have much more to lose than many developed countries. That’s why we’re fighting here at this COP,” he emphasized (read more at agencia.fapesp.br/56538). 

The effect of trees and the sea

According to researchers affiliated with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Belém is the Brazilian city with the most recorded heat waves. This phenomenon has increased in several countries over the past ten years.  

Artaxo’s simulations indicate that, by 2024, city residents will experience severe heat stress for five months (July to November) and very high heat stress (which poses a risk to life) for two months. 

The heat island effect exacerbates this level of heat stress for Belém residents. This phenomenon occurs when urban areas have significantly higher temperatures than surrounding forest areas. Despite being known as the gateway to the Amazon, Belém is one of the cities with the least vegetation cover in the country, according to researchers participating in the event.

“Belém is a city that’s very poor in trees, in general, and the city government has taken some actions to plant trees and increase shade and reduce the effects of the heat island,” said Paulo Rógenes Monteiro Pontes, an ITV researcher.

“We have a project led by other ITV researchers with the goal of identifying the most priority areas to relate to those that already have greater coverage and enable improving the well-being of the population and mitigating the effects of the heat island,” said Pontes.

A doctoral research project supervised by Jean Paul Metzger, a professor at the Institute of Biosciences at USP and a member of the FAPESP Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Use (BIOTA-FAPESP), revealed that a 10% increase in forest cover in urban areas reduces hospitalization rates for cardiovascular diseases by 8% and hospitalization for respiratory diseases by 17%.

“This’s a clear indication that having vegetation close to where people live brings direct health benefits and allows us to deal with the set of environmental changes we’re seeing,” said Metzger.

Alexander Turra, a professor at the Oceanographic Institute at USP and coordinator of the FAPESP Program for the South Atlantic and Antarctica (PROASA), pointed out that the connection with the ocean also has beneficial impacts on health. 

In partnership with researchers from the Albert Einstein Israeli Institute of Education and Research, they conducted an experiment in which they evaluated what types of images elicit the most positive reactions from people in a hospital environment, including those related to the sea, forest, family, and pets. Study participants indicated that it was images related to the ocean. 

Adaptation of cities 

According to Gilberto Jannuzzi, a professor at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and advisor to the Scientific Board for FAPESP’s Energy Transition Program, cities need to be designed with the impacts of heat waves in mind.

“It’s sad to see in Belém and Manaus, for example, the same types of construction and urbanization found in Rio de Janeiro or Europe, using the same building materials,” he compared. 

“These are infrastructure liabilities that aren’t discussed, but which are part of the energy transition itself: it isn’t just a matter of changing the fuel, but the entire infrastructure that’s been set up,” said Antônio Mauro Saraiva, a professor at the Engineering School at USP.

“It’s essential for the private sector to participate in this change. We need a new economy, one that isn’t based on exploitation, but on purpose, innovation, and technology,” he said. 

Luiz Aragão, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and a member of the RPGCC coordination team, said it will also be necessary to improve climate disaster risk warning systems in Brazil, which are still largely based on response rather than prediction.

“We need to obtain information that’ll enable us to implement preparedness strategies and actions to mitigate these events before they occur. Monitoring and warning systems also need to be able to respond to different risks,” he pointed out.

In a video message at the opening of the event, Marco Antônio Zago, president of FAPESP, praised the participation of researchers supported by the Foundation in the COP30 events.

“We’re very proud that scientists supported by FAPESP are leaving a trail of relevant contributions throughout the summit, which, in addition to its diplomatic and political nature, represents a huge opportunity for interaction between activists, scientists, governments, and society, all guided by science. And science is our territory. Science is with us,” he said.