EDITORIALS FROM 20th Sep 2025
EDITORIAL 01
The Saudi-Pakistan pact is a dodgy insurance policy
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EDITORIAL 02
A climate-health vision with lessons from India
Issue: The Global Conference on Climate and Health 2025, held in Belém, Brazil (29–31 July 2025), with delegates from 90 countries, drafted the Belém Health Action Plan, to be launched at COP30 (Nov 2025).
It aims to integrate climate action and health outcomes into a unified global agenda.
India’s absence at this conference was notable, since its welfare programmes offer valuable climate–health co-benefit models for the Global South.
Significance of the Belém Plan
- Establishes a global agenda linking health and climate policy.
- Recognises that climate change is a public health emergency (air pollution, malnutrition, vector-borne diseases).
- Seeks intersectoral, whole-of-society approaches rather than siloed environmental action.
- Positions health benefits (clean air, safe water, nutrition) as drivers of climate action, making it more politically acceptable.
India’s Relevant Experience
- PM POSHAN (Mid-Day Meal/PM Poshan Shakti Nirman)
- Coverage: 11 crore children, 11 lakh schools.
- Links nutrition, education, agriculture.
- Promotes millets and traditional grains, enhancing climate resilience.
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
- Improved sanitation, hygiene, dignity, while reducing disease burden.
- Also contributed to environmental sustainability through waste management.
- Mahatma Gandhi NREGA
- Created rural jobs through ecosystem restoration, water conservation, afforestation.
- Supports livelihoods + environment simultaneously.
- Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)
- Clean cooking fuel for women → reduced indoor air pollution and respiratory diseases.
- Also lowers household carbon emissions.
- Key Insight: These schemes, though not labelled as “climate policies,” generated significant health and climate co-benefits, proving the power of intersectoral design.
Lessons for Operationalising the Belém Plan
- Political Leadership
- High-level prioritisation (as in Swachh Bharat, PMUY) ensures cross-ministry coordination.
- Framing climate as a health and livelihood issue increases public and political buy-in.
- Community Anchoring
- Swachh Bharat leveraged Gandhian symbolism.
- PM POSHAN worked through school and parent committees.
- Climate action must tie into cultural values of health, prosperity, and dignity.
- Institutional Integration
- Use existing institutions (ASHA workers, SHGs, panchayats) rather than creating parallel structures.
- This ensures sustainability and grassroots ownership.
Challenges in India’s Model
- Administrative Silos: Ministries revert to fragmented functioning over time.
- Affordability Barriers: High LPG refill costs limit PMUY’s sustained use.
- Social Inequities: Caste, gender, and income gaps reduce equal access.
- Monitoring Gaps: Policies often measure outputs (toilets built, LPG connections) but not outcomes (sustained sanitation, refill rates, health improvements).
Framework for Future Action
- Strategic Prioritisation
- Frame climate policies as immediate health benefits (clean air, safe cooking, nutritious food).
- Procedural Integration
- Mandate Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) for all climate-relevant policies (energy, transport, agriculture).
- Participatory Implementation
- Empower local health workers, SHGs, panchayats as climate-health advocates.
- Communities relate more to clean air and safe water than to abstract carbon targets.
- Global Engagement
- India should showcase its welfare models at COP30 as templates for Global South.
- By missing Belém, India lost visibility — but COP30 offers a chance to lead in health-anchored climate governance.
The Belém Health Action Plan reflects a paradigm shift: climate action must be health-centric, intersectoral, and people-driven. India’s welfare schemes provide living examples of such integration, offering lessons for both policy design and implementation.
To emerge as a global exemplar, India must link its domestic welfare successes to international climate diplomacy — treating climate and health not as separate battles, but as interconnected challenges requiring unified governance.
EDITORIAL 03
In Nepal, a big ask