The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the important link between the energy and health sectors, the World Health Organisation chief has said.
Speaking at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week on Monday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “access to electricity meant the difference between life and death” in the pandemic, as medical professionals need to operate vital medical equipment and maintain cold chain for vaccines.
The director general of the organisation said that a billion people around the world were served in hospitals and clinics that operate without power.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical link between energy and health. Yet, a billion people are still served by healthcare facilities without power and rely on dirty energy at home,” he said in an online address.
Last year, the High Level Coalition on Health and Energy endorsed a plan that laid out priority actions.
Dr Ghebreyesus said the first goal was to dramatically increase investment in electrifying healthcare facilities and in clean cooking.
“Second, provide the necessary resources to design and implement clean energy plans tailored to the needs of the health sector,” he said.
“Third, develop policy and finance schemes to unlock the potential of clean energy solutions and to address the health sector needs.”
He said that the polluting energy sources were driving the climate crisis, bringing extreme weather, spreading infectious diseases and threatening to destroy vulnerable communities.
According to the Rockefeller Foundation, a US-based non-profit organisation, a quarter of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia have no electricity, and nearly three-quarters of those have unreliable power.
A recent study that analysed more than 121,000 health facilities in 46 low and middle-income countries found that almost 60 per cent of them lacked access to reliable electricity.
Dr Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said last year that every family in the world deserved access to a healthcare worker.
“You cannot run an effective healthcare clinic without electricity for lighting, sterilisation of equipment and storage of vital vaccines and medication,” he said.
“We’ve been reminded again during the pandemic why it is so risky for only the wealthy few to have access to the modern technology and data-driven health care that requires reliable electricity.”
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2022: in pictures
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The National display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC. All photos by Victor Besa / The National -
The National display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC. -
The Opti Robot, official mascot of Expo 2020 Dbai visits the Future Energy Summit in ADNEC. -
The PVH stall at the World Future Energy Summit in ADNEC -
The Sungrow display at World Future Energy Summit in ADNEC. -
The Hawido water valves display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC. -
The BP display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC. -
The NEOM stall at the World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC -
The National display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC. -
Roll-Royce SMR display at World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC -
Adnoc stall at the Future Energy Summit in ADNEC. -
The Japan Pavilion at the World Future Energy Summit in ADNEC -
The Masdar stall at the World Future Energy Summit at ADNEC -
The Taqa stand at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, held at Adnec. All photos: Victor Besa / The National -
The International Renewable Energy Agency stall -
Visitors at display by Taqa, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company -
Taqa is Arabic for ‘energy’ -
The stand of Terberg, a Dutch manufacturer of specialist vehicles -
Jeremy James operates the Terberg RosRoca, which is used in waste management and recycling -
The stall of the Spanish infrastructure company Acciona -
The event is held in tandem with the World Future Energy Summit -
Zarco Bogovac, left, and his team at Serbia’s Plastik Gogic hold miniatures of their colourful bins -
The Aldar Environmental Cafe -
The Sustainable City Yas Island stall -
The Sustainable City Yas Island stall -
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week -
Safety measures are in place at the event
