Honourable Minister Babayev,
Honourable Minister Musayev,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank the COP29 Presidency and the Governments of Azerbaijan and Spain for co-hosting this event.
Climate change is the defining health challenge of our time.
It affects every dimension of health:
The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the stability of health systems on which we rely.
Slow progress in reducing emissions and building adaptive capacities threatens human lives and the viability of health systems.
This year alone we have witnessed devastating floods in Valencia, destructive hurricanes in the United States, record-breaking temperatures in India, and megafires in the Amazon.
Deadly weather events are becoming a new normal.
Responding to these threats with the scale and speed required takes coordinated leadership at the global level.
So we extend our sincere thanks to the COP presidency for establishing the Baku COP Presidencies Continuity Coalition on Climate and Health.
This initiative unites the visionary leadership of five COP presidencies that span this critical time for action, underscoring a commitment to elevate health within the climate agenda.
This coalition represents a collective will to prioritize climate and health now and for the future.
We are also delighted that Azerbaijan has committed to serve as co-convener of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, or ATACH.
For years, the health community has advocated to position health at the heart of climate negotiations.
With air pollution taking the lives of seven million people each year, it is clear that reducing emissions is a fundamental matter of public health.
That is why we say that health is the most compelling argument for climate action.
Today I am honoured to present to the COP presidency WHO's special report on climate change and health, which calls for urgent action to protect the health of people, place and planet.
The report estimates that 1.9 million premature deaths could be averted by scaling up five evidence-based interventions:
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Early warning systems for extreme heat;
Powering health facilities with solar energy;
Water, sanitation and hygiene;
Cleaner household energy;
And fiscal policies on fossil fuel subsidies.
Realising these benefits requires action to protect people, place and planet.
First, protecting people means putting health at the centre of climate negotiations, because that is the lived experience of climate change.
Second, protecting place means making the cities and communities in which we live environments that nurture health, instead of harming it.
And third, protecting planet means transforming financial systems to move away from extraction and towards well-being.
Just yesterday, I was honoured to sign an agreement with Dr Al Jasser for the Islamic Development Bank's contribution of 10 million US dollars to WHO's Health Impact Investment Platform.
We hope this contribution will unlock further financing on climate and health.
Thank you all your commitment to putting health where it belongs, at the centre of climate negotiations.
Because, to borrow an expression from President Pedro Sanchez, healthy people cannot live on a sick planet.
Muchas gracias. I thank you.
