A few days before the start of the COP26, in Glasgow, the main international organization of gynecologists and obstetricians launches a call to “act now”, the climate crisis putting, according to them, in danger the human species.
• Read also: Saudi carbon neutral announcement puzzles experts
• Read also: Climate: China wants to limit the use of fossil fuels to less than 20% by 2060
The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Figo) – which represents hundreds of thousands of maternal and child health practitioners in more than 130 countries around the world – highlights the impact of the climate crisis on human reproduction.
In an article published online in the “International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics”, the authors argue that this crisis has become “a public health emergency that disproportionately affects pregnant people, children, people from disadvantaged communities. and marginalized, people of color and human reproduction ”.
“Climate change can also worsen care provided throughout pregnancy and childbearing, as well as the outcome of pregnancies in countries that already have low resources,” they say.
Thus, exposure to heat and air pollution during pregnancy causes “increased risks of stillbirths, low birth weight and premature births, and a significant increase in the risk of fetal congenital anomalies” , indicates the article.
The authors also detail the increased risks that natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes pose to women, children and pregnant people, including higher exposure to harmful pollutants and chemicals. With an increased risk of hypertension in pregnant women, depression or pre-eclampsia.
Fossil fuels, oil and natural gas are used to make products that can disrupt the endocrine system, they add.
“The production of these chemicals has been steadily increasing since the 1950s and corresponds to a dramatic increase in health problems affecting women and their families, such as diabetes, fertility problems, cancer and medical disorders. neurological, ”argues the article.
Climate: the target of 100 billion dollars for poor countries achievable in 2023, according to COP26
The organizers of the COP26 deem attainable in 2023, with three years delay, the objective of 100 billion dollars annually in aid from rich countries, big polluters, to poor countries to help them cope with the climate crisis, according to a report released on Monday.
The latest analyzes of financial commitments “suggest that (the objective) would be reached in 2023” and exceeded in the following years, according to this report published by the British presidency of the conference, six days before its launch in Glasgow, on the basis of work carried out by Germany and Canada.
In 2009, at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, the rich countries pledged to increase to $ 100 billion per year in 2020 aid to southern countries for the fight against climate change (adaptation and reduction measures shows). Ten years later, they are far from it: aid reached only 79.6 billion in 2019, according to the latest figures published in September by the OECD.
If the figures for 2020 are not yet available, “the target has almost certainly been missed”, conceded the president of the COP26, Alok Sharma, during a statement by videoconference to present the report, which details the means of ‘get there.
“This is a source of deep frustration for developing countries (…) and the aim of this plan was to demonstrate how donors, collectively, can achieve the goal in 2025 and thus rebuild the confidence of countries in development, ”he added.
This broken promise by rich countries is among the key issues undermining preparations for COP26 which opens on October 31 in Glasgow, Scotland. At the event, the British government hopes to persuade some 200 countries to do more to reduce their emissions in the hopes of successfully containing global warming below 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, an ambitious threshold. fixed in 2015 by the Paris agreements.