Your Excellency Samira Bawumia,
Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished members of the High-Level Coalition, dear colleagues and friends,
Thank you all for accepting my invitation for today's important meeting. I am grateful to see so many leaders committed to working towards a healthier and cleaner future.
We are all here to fight for a world where access to clean, affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is a reality for everyone around the world, and particularly for the most marginalized and vulnerable communities.
Currently, around one third of the world's population relies on polluting fuels and cooking technologies.
There are an estimated 3.2 million premature deaths each year as the result of household air pollution.
In addition, hundreds of millions of people globally are served by health facilities without electricity, dramatically hampering the quality, accessibility and reliability of health services delivered.
Accelerating access to clean cooking in homes and electricity in health facilities must be key development priorities. They can save millions of lives and prevent disease and disability.
We know how to get there. But we have a long road ahead.
We need to come together to tackle the links between health, energy and climate.
The health sector is responsible for almost 5% of global carbon emissions, and household air pollution is the largest source of black carbon, responsible for around half of black carbon emissions globally.
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The High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy plays an important role in building cooperation between the health and energy sectors.
We need to increase public and private investment in electrifying health facilities and in clean cooking, using clean energy sources.
Only with the commitment of key decision-makers and stakeholders from multiple sectors, will we be able to achieve the goals in the Strategic Roadmap on health and energy, which we endorsed in our first meeting last year.
Today's meeting will pave the way for concrete and coordinated action on clean energy for the health sector.
The call-to-action that has been shared with you highlights key efforts at COP27 to increase the climate resilience of health facilities and increase air quality through sustainable energy.
We are grateful for the suggestions and support you have provided.
After this meeting, I will send this document to the COP Presidency on your behalf.
Thank you so much for your support.
I am convinced that this joint statement will send a strong message to key stakeholders on the need to address the health-energy-climate nexus.
I look forward to our discussion today and thank you in advance for your commitment and effort.
And finally, I would like to have a special thanks and appreciation to Her Excellency the Second Lady of Ghana Samira Bawumia for her leadership since the start of the Health and Energy Coalition I know the passion you have.
Thank you for your support.
