MSF Operational Centre of Geneva (OCG) has committed to address the climate emergency and its related health and humanitarian concerns and it constitutes an integral part of the OCG strategic plan 2020-2023. The climate emergency is already, and will increasingly, cause multiple types of medical and humanitarian needs that fall within MSF’s scope of work. A significant proportion of the health problems managed in MSF projects today are climate sensitive. These include infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, zika, diarrheal disease, and malnutrition, food insecurity, respiratory and cardiovascular illness, extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods. There is an abundance of high-quality scientific evidence available which clearly outline the negative and alarming impacts of the climate emergency on human health and well-being.
The climate emergency is a real health and humanitarian emergency and the communities we support are by far the most affected by it.