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Zambia will push for health facility functionality to be recognised as a key measure of climate adaptation at the COP31 climate summit, with the country calling for stronger financing to ensure health systems remain operational during climate shocks.
Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Dr. Gilbert Siame, said Zambia would advocate for an implementation-focused Global Goal on Adaptation supported by adequate, predictable and accessible climate finance when the summit takes place in Antalya, Turkey, from Nov. 9 to 20.
Siame said, for the health sector, adaptation should be measured by whether health facilities remain functional during droughts, floods and extreme heat and whether climate-related illness and mortality are being reduced.
Speaking during the National Climate and Health Dialogue in Lusaka on Wednesday, Siame said Zambia was approaching COP31 at an important moment and would push for climate and health priorities to be integrated into the formal negotiating process.
He said Zambia would advocate for scaled-up, predictable and grant-based public finance, particularly for adaptation, while ensuring that climate and health programmes could access such financing through practical and simplified arrangements.
“Investments in climate resilient health infrastructure, surveillance systems, water and sanitation, cooling and energy reliability for health facilities, and community level preparedness should not be treated as peripheral health expenditure, they are core climate resilience investments,” he said.
Siame said Zambia would also seek recognition of health-related impacts under the global loss and damage framework, arguing that climate impacts extended beyond damaged roads, crops and physical infrastructure.
He said these impacts included increased disease burden, disruption of essential health services, damage to health infrastructure and additional public health expenditure.
“The costs should be visible in national assessments and in the design of support under the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage,” Siame said.
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