TEHRAN – Boosting resilience and adaptation is the most effective strategy to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, the head of the Department of Environment (DOE), Shina Ansari, has said.

Apart from affecting the environment, climate change poses a crisis in the health sector. Being located in West Asia, the impacts of climate change and the rise in temperature in Iran are more than the global average, which indirectly leads to the intensification of pathogens, doe.ir quoted Ansari as saying.

She made the remarks while addressing the 9th international and 28th national conference on environmental health held on Tuesday at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over the next two decades, climate change is expected to cause more than five million additional deaths worldwide.  Accordingly, the adaptive capacity of each country’s health system showcases its ability to adapt to the adverse health effects posed by climate change, she added.

Indirect effects of climate change include the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. It will threaten food security, spread poverty, and intensify wars, conflicts, as well as internal and external migrations, Ansari noted.

Climate resilience of health systems is the touchstone of their ability to anticipate, prevent, respond to, cope with, and recover from adverse conditions and climate-related tensions.

Today, climate change, particularly a sharp decline in annual precipitation, along with other environmental changes such as the drying up of wetlands, land degradation, sand and dust storms, and desertification, has caused numerous environmental problems, the official said.

The official went on to say that in line with the Seventh National Development Plan (2023-2027), the DOE kicked off the climate change management program at the beginning of the fall with a focus on three main areas of action.

The first is the expansion of green economy and low-carbon industries through decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, optimizing energy consumption, diversifying energy sources, and managing waste.

The second one highlights increasing adaptation in monitoring, forecasting, preventing, and decreasing damages caused by climate change in water, agriculture, and environmental health.

The third area emphasizes the promotion of organizational coordination and the expansion of environmental diplomacy, which aims to clarify problems, priorities, and solutions through enhancing collaborations between different executive and specialized agencies.

Climate action impossible without financing

Addressing a plenary session at the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, Sediqeh Torabi, an official with the DOE emphasized the need for sufficient and predictable financing for implementing climate actions by developing countries.

COP30 was held from November 6 to 21, in Belém, Brazil.

The official noted that Iran cannot support raised ambition in emissions reductions or new targets unless financing, technology transfer, and capacity-building for developing countries are fully and reliably provided. She said that ambition must be matched by the means of implementation.

Adaptation is a vital priority for Iran and other developing countries, she said, highlighting the need to strengthen early warning systems, protect water resources, and support vulnerable communities.

The indicators of the global adaptation target should be designed in a way that does not impose an additional reporting burden on developing countries, she stressed.

Referring to the Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respected Capabilities (CBDR-RC) principle, Torabi called unilateral coercive measures the main obstacle in advancing the climate action agenda, warning that these measures hinder developing countries’ access to financial resources, low-carbon technologies, and international cooperation.

MT/MG