Colombia writes health into its climate plan — clean air included

A climate plan is usually written in tonnes and targets. Colombia's, an independent assessment finds, is also written in lungs. The Global Climate and Health Alliance's Healthy NDC Scorecard — built by more than 300 health-professional and civil-society organisations and published this week — credits Colombia with deeply weaving health into its national climate plan, scoring 29 of 32. Colombia is one of only five countries in the assessment to set targets for cutting black carbon, the sooty particle that warms the planet and damages hearts and lungs at the same time. The scorecard reads plans the way a doctor would: does the fine print protect the people breathing the air? In Colombia's case, unusually, the answer is written into the plan itself — a reminder that behind every emissions curve there are asthma clinics, heat wards and harvests, and that a plan can be drafted with all of them in view.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: policy reform