The global policy on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) ambitiously aims to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, while ensuring the continued effectiveness of these life-saving medications, through a multi-pronged approach, including but not limited to improving awareness, strengthening knowledge through surveillance and research, reducing infection incidence, optimizing antimicrobial use, and developing new antibiotics and alternative treatments.
However, the escalating climate change dents the above global optimistic ambition. There is a growing international concern over the escalating link between climate change and AMR. Climate change exacerbates AMR in several ways, impacting human and animal health. Increased temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and changes in ecosystems can bolster the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens and escalate the risk of infections, especially in developing countries. Moreover, climate change may lead to increased (mis)use of antimicrobials in agriculture to compensate for crop losses, further fueling AMR. According to the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS), climate change impacts human health, animal health, food, plant, and environmental ecosystems in numerous ways, many of which lead to AMR’s development, as these changes in environmental conditions increase the spread of bacterial, viral, parasitic, fungal, and vector-borne diseases in humans, animals, and plants. On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges that the world faces an antibiotics pipeline and access crisis, coupled with an inadequate research and development pipeline in the face of rising levels of resistance, prompting an urgent need for additional measures to ensure equitable access to new and existing vaccines, diagnostics, and medicines.
Conclusively, as WHO has argued, addressing global AMR policy and climate change is a critical concern due to their interconnectedness and shared impacts, thus the need for urgent international intervention in terms of research, funding, knowledge sharing, and other efforts in a concerted manner in humans, livestock, and plants.
Regards,
HIFA profile: James Mawanda is accredited with the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR), and UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2022) and a Member of the UNDRR Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism. James is an Associate Partner, at the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change and Health (ICCH), University of Hamburg, Germany. Member, Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, Columbia University. A member of the Global Health Hub, Germany. Also, a Mentor, International Network for Government Science Advice, Africa Chapter (INGSA-Africa), South Africa, and Mentor, Land Accelerator Africa by World Resources Institute (WRI), A Research Associate, Uganda Red Cross Society. James is a member of the Research4life User Group. He is also a Country Expert (Uganda & Rwanda) for Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM), University of Gothenburg, Sweden, since 2020. An Executive Director of African Forum for International Relations in Research and Development (AFIRRD). A member of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) & United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). James holds a Ph.D. in Diplomacy & International Affairs. James’ research interests span; International Organizations (IOs), particularly their conceptual prescriptions to the developing world; non-government organizations (NGOs) and their socio-political work in the developing world; and global climate policy and health dynamics, diplomacy and negotiations. He is an International Research and Project Assistant, EUCLID University, An Editorial Board Member, International Peer-Reviewed Journals and Books (IPRJB), USA. He is a reviewer at Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE), Washington DC; and VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Non-profit Organizations. Uganda’s “ambassador” on The Council on Educational Standards and Accountability in Africa; Member, Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development Phase II (PAEPARD II); Human Development & Capability Association (HDCA)- HDCA Southern African Network; Member, Africa Community of Practice (CoP) on Forgotten / Underutilized Food, by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA); Member, FAO’s Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum). mawandajames AT gmail.com