Health will be on the opening-day agenda at COP31, with a dedicated programme scheduled for Monday, 9 November, according to a World Health Organization update published on Friday.
The programme includes four high-level panel discussions and a ministerial roundtable on strengthening health systems. Topics include digital health, technologies responding to climate risks, humanitarian aid and financing.
WHO says ministers, country delegations, technical experts and civil society representatives are expected to take part. These are scheduled discussions, rather than agreements already reached.
A separate programme on 10 November will bring together members of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health, known as ATACH.
WHO also plans more than 60 events at the conference’s Health Pavilion. Its stated priorities include making health systems more resilient to climate risks and improving access to finance for practical measures.
The organisation says implementation and funding remain behind available knowledge. Whether the meetings produce new commitments, and how those commitments will be funded or delivered, will need to be assessed against the conference’s actual outcomes.
Archive photograph: World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, 18 November 2022. Photo: TMorata / Wikimedia Commons. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WHO_Headquarter_in_Geneva.jpg . Licence: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Cropped and resized for display. This archive image identifies WHO and does not show the COP31 venue or event.
