Jakarta, 29 April 2024 — The Indonesian Ministry of Health (MoH), the United Nations Development Programme in Indonesia (UNDP Indonesia) in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) today signed a joint commitment to implement a project funded by Green Climate Fund (GCF), an ambitious global climate and health investment initiative.

Acknowledging the significant threat that climate change poses to both human and planetary health, MoH, UNDP and WHO have come together in a tripartite collaboration that will leverage public and private capital, and various resources such as expertise, knowledge, technology, networks, and collaborative efforts from partners across multiple sectors to promote climate-resilient, sustainable, and low-carbon health systems.

As part of the global GCF project, which covers 17 countries, the project in Indonesia will be designed to improve the climate resilience of health services through climate adaptation and mitigation solutions. The adaptation component involves strengthening and integrating early-warning systems for climate-related diseases. Under mitigation, the initiative seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from healthcare facilities. Each country will implement the project according to its unique circumstances, ensuring a tailored, context-specific approach.

In Indonesia, the project aims to establish climate-resilient and sustainable national health systems, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from health systems and health care facilities, and enhancing financing for transformative action on climate-related health risks. The initiative will assist the Indonesian health system to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and promote climate-resilient and low-carbon, sustainable health systems.

Sujala Pant, Officer in Charge of UNDP Indonesia said, “UNDP has the largest climate portfolio in the UN system, supporting climate action in nearly 150 developing countries. Here in Indonesia, 72% of our programme is also focused on resilience to climate change and disasters. We believe that climate change is a cross-cutting issue, so we have also built in across most of our programmes an inherent approach to understand the climate change impacts to any of areas of work, and how to develop and co-create solutions that can withstand or better respond to the impacts of climate change in the future. Therefore, this collaboration is crucial for us”.

Climate change affects diseases by altering climate variables like rainfall, temperature, and humidity, which impact disease transmission dynamics. Changes in regional climate patterns also affect agroecosystems and water availability, leading to shortages and increasing water and food-related diseases like malnutrition and diarrhea. For example, reduced rainfall and temperatures in Maluku increased pneumonia cases by 96% and diarrhea cases by 19%. Conversely, higher temperatures and rainfall raised dengue fever cases by 227% in Bali-Nusa Tenggara, and malaria cases in Papua by 66%.

Furthermore, Indonesia is estimated to experience an economic loss by 1.86% (around 21.6 billion) due to the impact of climate change on the health sector. On the other hand, a World Bank report stated that the impact of climate change on the water sector can lead to economic losses of about 7.3% by 2045. If left unchecked, climate change will also affect the health profiles of current and future generations, become a burden on health systems, and hinder efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage.

“Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, and WHO is committed to respond,” said Dr N. Paranietharan, WHO Representative to Indonesia. “The launch of this initiative marks a bold step forward for Indonesia – which is especially vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change – and will accelerate progress here, as across the world, towards a healthier, greener, more resilient and sustainable future for all.”

In his remarks, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health of Indonesia, showed his commitment “The Minister of Health will commit to supporting the energy and resources necessary for leading this project. To achieve the envisioned outcomes together, extensive collaboration from an array of ministries will be required.”

Through this joint commitment on the GCF project, MoH, UNDP, along with WHO will collaborate to accomplish a series of objectives, particularly in reducing Indonesia’s vulnerability to climate-related diseases and the disruption of essential health services, including improving health outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, who are disproportionately affected by climate-health risks.

The project will involve extensive collaboration with key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, ranging from site selection to the synchronization of project goals with Indonesia's overarching national development strategy. Additionally, the project will engage the Ministry of Finance, which acts as the national designated authority for the Green Climate Fund. They will endorse the No Objection Letter (NOL) for the GCF project's country-specific proposal from Indonesia.