Although climate change-related health risks are clear, there has been limited engagement of the health sector in modifying current and implementing new interventions to manage the risks.

The extent of health impacts will depend on the ability of the public health sector to modify current and implement new effective and timely adaptation measures.

To do this effectively, public health needs to move from a focus on surveillance and response to a greater emphasis on prediction and prevention.

Public health considerations must be revised in disaster management strategies, but also in long-term planning.

The potential health impacts of heatwaves, floods, droughts, and windstorms, must be taken into account in planning for the future.

With many parts of the world likely to get warmer, disease bearing vectors increase their range spreading infectious diseases into areas where the disease was not known before.

Flooding will increase the risk of water borne diseases such as cholera, and dysentery particularly in countries already suffering from health and sanitation problems.

In recent years the Red Cross and Red Crescent has sensed that the threat of epidemic diseases in Africa has risen while response capacity has languished.

For instance, affecting primarily the youngest, the poorest and the elderly, diarrhoeal disease is arguably responsible for the greatest number of recurring disease morbidity.

Reflecting the auxiliary role of NSs to Government, in many cases RC/RC volunteers and staff have been mobilized in support of the Government in clinical interventions and in outreach, awareness raising and control of outbreaks at household and community level.

Outbreaks usually generate a great deal of attention and rapid emergency responses. However, the problem of epidemic disease can only be alleviated by undertaking long-term, sustainable, developmental measures scaling up our activities in the area of epidemic disease prevention, response and surveillance.

Rather than act as a front line response unit for outbreaks, we will seek to complement existing emergency response structures and train National Societies, from the volunteer level up, in epidemic disease response best practice.

We will work to ensure that planning for the transition from emergency to recovery phase is an essential aspect of response programs and new funding strategies are found to achieve it.

The recent and emerging diarrhoeal disease outbreak ‘hotspots’ will be mapped out.

Early Warning Systems of potential outbreaks are being created in partnership with scientific community - e.g. on malaria, meningitis, Rift Valley Fever and diarrhoeal diseases.

The contents of the existing working “tools” will be revised integrating the climate change into the public health agendas like “Community Based First Aid” trainings, and utilising the expertise of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, which is located in The Hague.

The Red Cross Red Crescent sees climate change as everybody’s responsibility and as such the approach is cross-cutting, not vertical.

It is on this basis that we hope Governments and National Societies will consult on the best ways of addressing the humanitarian consequences of climate change in their own countries, and supporting work on prediction and prevention in other countries as well.