Climate change can be seen as “the greatest global health threat facing the world in the 21st century.” With healthcare systems already operating under extreme weather conditions and climate impacts intensifying across the globe, the climate crisis has increasingly become a health crisis with a multitude of implications. As with any health threat, prevention is better than a cure. While instant mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is the most effective policy to prevent future harms, an effective response to imminent climate-induced health threats is needed now. When it comes to climate-induced health threats, we cannot count on progress in terms of vaccines immunizing people against the effects of heat waves, wildfires, droughts, or floods. Instead, we need to focus on effective adaptation efforts, long-term resilience-building, and addressing loss and damage (L&D).

Through the Global Negotiations Support initiative and the Global Climate Change Policy Fellowship programme, SLYCAN Trust supports negotiators from the Global South in their engagement with the UNFCCC and other multilateral processes. Mabel Zúñiga is a young negotiator from Panama who works with the Climate Change Directorate of the Ministry of Environment of Panama and is a SLYCAN Trust fellow since 2024. These are her reflections from participating in the Bonn Climate Change Conference 2024 (SB60).

Through the Global Negotiations Support initiative and the Global Climate Change Policy Fellowship programme, SLYCAN Trust supports negotiators from the Global South in their engagement with the UNFCCC and other multilateral processes. Gabriel Mara is a young negotiator from Fiji who is a SLYCAN Trust fellow since 2024. These are his reflections from participating in the Bonn Climate Change Conference 2024 (SB60).