عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Rich Countries Should Play Bigger Role in Combating Pandemics, Says WHO Draft

A journalist undergoes a Covid-19 PCR test ahead of the China-Central Asia Summit welcome ceremony at a hotel in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, 18 May 2023. (EPA)
A journalist undergoes a Covid-19 PCR test ahead of the China-Central Asia Summit welcome ceremony at a hotel in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, 18 May 2023. (EPA)
TT
TT

Rich Countries Should Play Bigger Role in Combating Pandemics, Says WHO Draft

A journalist undergoes a Covid-19 PCR test ahead of the China-Central Asia Summit welcome ceremony at a hotel in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, 18 May 2023. (EPA)
A journalist undergoes a Covid-19 PCR test ahead of the China-Central Asia Summit welcome ceremony at a hotel in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China, 18 May 2023. (EPA)

Richer countries should be asked to better pull their weight in helping the world cope with pandemics, according to a new draft of a treaty being negotiated at the World Health Organization.

Countries with more "capacities and resources" should bear a "commensurate degree" of responsibility for preparing for and responding to global health threats, the draft, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, suggests.

The treaty, a legally binding agreement being negotiated by WHO member states, aims to address what it calls the "catastrophic failure" of the international community to fight COVID-19 fairly around the world.

COVID has killed around 7 million people since it emerged in China at the end of 2019, disrupting the global economy and ravaging communities. More than 750 million infections have been reported.

The 42-page document aims to help the world do better next time. Member states have the option to remove numerous paragraphs from it in future negotiations, including the one about responsibilities.

Sections that have proved controversial in earlier drafts, including around intellectual property and reserving 20% of tests, treatments and vaccines for the WHO to distribute in poorer countries during emergencies, remain in the new draft but could still be removed. No such provision on pandemic countermeasures existed during COVID.

A clause in an earlier draft obliging pharmaceutical companies to make details of their deals with governments public appears to have been dropped.

The document also defines "pandemic" - one of several sticking points that have already taken up negotiating time - as "the global spread of a pathogen or variant" that spreads easily, is dangerous, overwhelms health systems, and requires international coordination.

The treaty is due to be finalized by 2024.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.