Health got the opening day of COP31 and a new initiative. It did not get any money.
Antalya, Monday. Health Day opened the conference with four high-level panels and a health ministers’ roundtable, and Türkiye used the roundtable to launch the Antalya Initiative for Health Resilience. It is voluntary and non-binding: a way for countries to swap what works. Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said Türkiye was taking over Brazil’s Belém legacy and “carrying it one step further”, and pointed to 809 public health facilities retrofitted at home. He attached no funding.
Money is the thing to watch. The Belém Health Action Plan had 33 countries behind it by May and relied solely on philanthropic funding. WHO’s test for Antalya is whether those commitments “are implemented, renewed and reported”. Day one produced a reporting method. Nobody put money on the table, and Finance Day is Friday.
Elsewhere, Chris Bowen told the opening plenary that the science now says “we will overshoot 1.5”, and an African request for agenda items on adaptation finance and trade was withdrawn after overnight talks (Climate Home News). The badge queue grew long enough that organisers asked anyone without urgent business to come back tomorrow.
Reporting from COP31 for Medika Life. Tomorrow: Energy and Transport, and ATACH Day at the Health Pavilion.
Carrying Belém “One Step Further”, Without the Money was originally published in Purpose and Social Impact on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
