Topic:
Country: United States of America
Delegate Name: Andre Stoll
World Health Organization
Climate Change and Infectious Diseases
The United States Of America
Andre Stoll
Forest Hills Eastern High School
The UN (United Nations) defines climate change as a change in either the local or global climate due to humans, be it directly or indirectly. The issue of climate change has been rapidly expanding over the past decades, with an ever-increasing amount of research showing the numerous negative effects of global warming. In 2003, research conducted by the WHO (World Health Organization) demonstrated the effects climate change has on infectious diseases. It found that the worldwide increase in temperatures was creating an ample climate for mosquitos and other disease-spreading vectors to spread harmful illnesses. In 2021, the WHO has been tasked by the UN to evaluate the extent to which climate change and its effect on infectious diseases pose a problem, and propose and discuss potential solutions to that problem.
The United States has had varying standpoints on the effect and prevalence of climate change over the past decades, typically experiencing a shift in policy after a new president’s election. During the presidency of Barack Obama, the U.S. joined and was a signatory of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. During his presidency, the U.S. also banned all offshore drilling and mining in the U.S.-owned waters of the Atlantic and Arctic. However, after President Donald Trump took office in 2016, the U.S. began to roll back environmental restrictions and left the Paris agreement. The U.S. is hesitant to completely ban major climate warming products, such as oil and other fossil fuels and gas emissions, in the next few decades due to the perceived major negative effects it would have on its economy. Nevertheless, after President Joe Biden was elected in 2020, the U.S. once again experienced a shift in policy, reinstating many Obama-era policies and sanctions on oil companies, and re-joined the Paris accords. The U.S. was a major part of COP-26 and was committed to making it a turning point in international efforts to confront the climate emergency. The U.S. recognizes the importance of reducing global warming and protecting the environment and sees the current climate situation as a crisis. The U.S. government-run organization, the NCBI(National Center for Biotechnology Information), acknowledges that climate change will result in an increased incidence of disease-causing vectors. The U.S. is committed to protecting its nation from potential threats and views climate change and the new diseases it will bring as a serious threat to the wellbeing of not just its people, but to people worldwide.
The U.S. supports efforts to limit Earth’s total increase in temperature over the next 100 years to 1.5 degrees celsius, and it acknowledges that one of the most effective ways to do this would be to limit emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. wants to reach global net-zero emissions by 2050 through a gradual shift away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner methods of power, such as nuclear, solar, or wind. The U.S. wants to limit the economic impact of shifting to clean energy and ensure that these new clean power methods create enough jobs to substitute for the jobs lost in the fossil fuel industries. The U.S. has the resources to provide aid to other countries impacted by climate changes effects, and it can assist other nations in the process of reaching net 0 emissions by 2050.
