COP27: The Prospects and Challenges for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Document Type : Editorial

Authors

1 Department of Global Health & Public Policy, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department Health Management, Policy & Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Health Equity Research Center (HERC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

5 Centre for Global Chronic Conditions, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

6 Health Services Management Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

7 School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

8 Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand

9 Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland

10 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

11 O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA

12 Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

13 School of Public Health, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

14 Center for Population-Level Bioethics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

15 Menzies Centre for Health Governance, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

16 Wagner School of Public Service, New York University, New York City, NY, USA

17 Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

18 School of Health Administration, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

19 Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

20 University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda

21 Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

22 Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

23 Research Centre for Modelling in Health, Institute for Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

In line with the global trend, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been growing vulnerable to the direct and indirect health effects of climate change including death tolls due to climatological disasters and diseases sensitive to climate change since the industrial revolution. Regarding the limited capacity of MENA countries to adapt and respond to these effects, and also after relative failures of the previous negotiation in Glasgow, in the upcoming COP27 in Egypt, the heads of the region’s parties are determined to take advantage of the opportunity to host MENA to mitigate and prevent the worst effects of climate change. This would be achieved through mobilizing international partners to support climate resilience, a major economic transformation, and put health policy and management in a strategic position to contribute to thinking and action on these pressing matters, at least to avoid or minimize the future adverse consequences.

Keywords


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