The Royal National Lifeboat Institution supports this resolution on climate change and health and asks member states not to overlook climate impacts on injury, particularly drowning prevention.

Drowning is a preventable and inequitable killer. The most visible impacts of climate change on drowning risk will be more severe storms leading to flooding that can devastate vulnerable communities.

Yet the bigger impacts on drowning risk will be hotter temperatures and increased drought, which drive people globally to seek out open water for washing, cooking, and recreation.

Last year’s resolution on “Accelerating action on drowning prevention” was an important step forward for member states to address drowning. Climate change cannot be allowed to stall that progress. Anyone can drown, no one should.