Around one third of the population worldwide still rely on polluting fuels and technology combinations to meet their basic daily energy needs for cooking. The resulting household air pollution leads to 3.2 million premature deaths each year from noncommunicable
disease and pneumonia and is the largest source of black carbon, responsible for around half of black carbon emissions globally.
In addition to that, close to a billion people globally are served by health facilities without reliable electricity, limiting access to essential and lifesaving medical devices and dramatically hampering the quality, accessibility and reliability
of health services delivered. As of October 2022 just 29% of Africa’s population has received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. This along with limited access to cooling in health facilities in especially Sub-Saharan Africa, reliable cold chains
are integral to improving health sector infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. Moreover, the health sector overall is responsible for 4.4% of global carbon emissions.
To tackle these global issues, the global Health and Energy Platform of Action (HEPA) aims to ensure universal access to clean and sustainable energy to protect public health and to mitigate the effects of climate change.
HEPA aims to catalyse the scale of results required to achieve SDG 3 on health and SDG 7 on energy by:
- mobilising political commitment
- promoting the development of global or country implementation roadmaps
- demonstrating leadership
- conducting advocacy and outreach at high-level international engagements
- promoting an interdisciplinary approach and bringing together actors from the health and energy sectors
Description
This joint side event will showcase concrete actions, projects and programmes, HEPA partners are implementing on the ground to accelerate energy access in health-care facilities including the deployment of cold chains and improving clean household
energy within the most vulnerable communities.
A variety of HEPA partners working on health and energy issues have committed to accelerate action in these areas and will share practical experience in various countries and regions. Furthermore, speakers will highlight examples on how to tackle
issues linked to health-care facilities and household energy and show how governments, Ministries, other decision makers and stakeholders can be supported sustainably and successfully.
Speakers
Dr Maria Neira, Director Environment, Climate Change & Health, WHO
Mr Demetrios Papathanasiou, Global Director for Energy and Extractives, World Bank (tbc)
Ms Heather Adair-Rohani, Technical Lead on Energy & Health & Head of Air Quality and Health, WHO
Mr Ed Brown, Research Director, Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS)
Mr Kandeh Yumkella,
Member of Parliament, CEO of TENN Network, Sierra Leone
Representative, World Bank/ESMAP (tbc)
Gautam Narasimhan, Global Lead for Climate, Energy and Environment, UNICEFadditional speakers (tbc)
The session will be livestreamed here
