Omoragbon demands liberation of $100b yearly from fossil subsidies for nurse-led resilience …Says ratification of Health-Ocean-Climate Nexus Framework, critical

Aboard the boat: ART EXPLORA, PORT DU NICE VENUE OF THE UNOC 2025 CONFERENCE- From left: Mr. ERE Wakedi Davidson( Bayelsa State Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy), Ms. Kerrlene WILLS, ( United Nations Foundation), Engr. Hamid ABDULKAREEM ( Nigeria Meteorological Agency), Dr. Dolapo OLUTEYE ( University College, London), Pastor Peters OMORAGBON (Nurses Across the Borders), Mrs. Marie Hubatova (Environmental Defence Fund), Prof. Wilson AKPALU ( Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ghana), Dr. Annika FROSCH ( University College London) and Dr. Domagoj BARESIC ( University College London) at the end of the Side Event.

Pastor Peters Osawaru Omoragbon, the Executive President, Nurses Across the Borders Humanitarian Initiative (NABHI) has demanded the liberation of $100b/year from fossil subsidies for nurse-led resilience with other healthcare professionals, ratification of the Health-Ocean-Climate Nexus Framework and prosecution of ecological crimes through the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Omoragbon, was speaking at the United Nation (UN) Ocean Conference (UNOC) 2025 Side Event, in Nice, France on June 12, 2025. The theme of the event was ‘Health & Climate Change: Nexus in Marine & Blue Economy Strategic Policy Pathways for Just Transition’.

In his keynote, titled ‘Healing Our Planet, Healing Our People: Integrated Policies for Health, Climate, and Ocean Resilience,’ Pastor Omoragbon, spoke on the interconnected crises of climate breakdown, ocean collapse, and health system failure which form a self-reinforcing vortex threatening 1.4 billion African lives. He disclosed that the Nurses Across the Borders (NABHI) with 26 years of frontline climate change campaign and data from nations has confronted the interlinked emergencies with evidence, empathy, and exigency by the delivery of an evidence-based prescription for survival.

He said, “Our diagnosis is unequivocal: Human health is oceanic health is climate stability. When gas flares poison children’s lungs in the Niger Delta, those same toxins acidify the Gulf of Guinea. When rising seas flood Dakar’s slums, cholera follows. Yet our prognosis remains hopeful: Rigorous evidence confirms that strategically integrated policies can break this cycle.”

Omoragbon was able to dissect the pathology and offered implementable cure. He spoke on what he called Africa’s Syndemic: Climate, Ocean, and Health in Crisis, Syndemic being two or more illness states interacting poorly with each other and negatively influencing the mutual course of each disease trajectory. The Data that he presented showed that Africa suffers 4-7x the global mortality from climate-linked diseases despite minimal emissions which brings about Vector-Borne Disease Surge, Heat-Related Mortality and Nutritional Collapse.

On what he called Ocean-Health Nexus: The Unseen Epidemic, he disclosed that Africa’s marine ecosystems sustain 120 million people which at moment is critically compromised leading to Fisheries Collapse, Toxic Seafood and Pathogen Explosion.

Presenting data from NABHI’s 2024 Health Facility Survey to buttress his claims, Omoragbon brought to the fore the reason for health system failure in Africa, including lack of backup power for vaccines, as 2.1 million children lose immunization, No water purification leading to Cholera Case as fatality rate rises to 18% during floods, and insufficient dialysis units during droughts.

While speaking on Governance Fragmentation, he critically presented what he called the three Silo Syndrome which plague African policies, explaining the cacophonic and disconnected relationship between ministries, departments and agencies. For instance, the Ministry of Health always plan disease response after outbreaks-cite the instance of the recent flood in Nigeria that was predicted by NIMET, nothing was done to evacuate the people from the areas identified, but after the disaster, government agents went to donate food items. He asked “Will that sustain their physical and mental health. In developed countries, the reverse is the case. But lets not forget that these countries have vast resources and facilities to confront these challenges-why can’t these be exported to Africa?” He said that Environment Agency monitors coral bleaching without health linkage, and Fisheries Department reports fish decline after stocks collapse.

He said the Health-Ocean-Climate Nexus Framework require one, to deploy 500 nurse-led field teams to map: Coastal water toxicity ↔ Child neurodevelopment outcomes; -Sea temperature rise ↔ Diarrheal prevalence ; second, to Integrate data into AU’s Continental Early Warning System. He stated that Funding should be made available from the G7 Climate Reparations Fund which target $120m/year.

Omoragbon also advocated Mobile Ocean-Climate Clinics with Design Specifications to include Solar-powered vessels with desalination units; Portable labs for heavy metal/plastic toxin screening; Satellite-linked telemedicine for specialist consults and proposed two countries in Africa-Nigeria and Kenya, Uganda and Tazania as pilot sites; Niger Delta: Screening 500,000 fishers for hydrocarbon poisoning and Lake Victoria: Monitoring algal blooms linked to schistosomiasis outbreaks.

He also made public other NABHI’s 2025-2027 Action Plan with Scalable Solutions to include Rapid Deployment (2025-2026); African Marine-Health Corridors; Geography: 20km coastal zones in 12 high-risk nations

His interventions include Ecosystem Restoration: Nurse-supervised community planting of 1 million mangrove propagules (carbon sequestration + storm surge barrier) ; Health Infrastructure: Flood-resistant clinics with: Rainwater harvesting (500,000L capacity), Telemedicine hubs for toxin exposure consults; he said that all these should be Funded through World Bank Blue Economy Bond ($500m)

Speaking on Fossil Fuel Accountability Mechanism using as Policy Model the Nigeria’s Oil Pollution Health Levy (2024): called for 7.5% tax on offshore oil profits → $280m/year, Health Adaptation Fund; Mandates oil firm’s fund, Paediatric cancer units in oil-producing zones, and Seagrass restoration to absorb drilling runoff.

Omoragbon concluded by stating the obvious, the Nurse’s Prescription for a Living Planet, saying, “When a nurse suction toxic alga from a child’s lungs in Lake Victoria, then watch pharmaceutical waste choke that same lake – I see the hypocrisy of our fragmented systems. “We stand at the precipice. When a child gasps from climate-aggravated asthma—that is our emergency. When marine toxins poison her mother’s breast milk—that too is our emergency. Nurses are the bridge between ICUs and oceans.” Nurses refuse this insanity. We are the antibodies in Earth’s immune system.”