Shifting consumer behaviour towards healthier, more sustainable diets BOX 3 According to the United Arab Emirates’ National Nutrition Strategy, over 80% of adults do not consume the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.35 As such, Majid Al Futtaim’s grocery retail business, Carrefour, launched the Choose Better initiative to promote healthier and more sustainable diets through labelling, education and incentives. The Choose Better programme aims to address the nutritional gap by offering affordable, clearly labelled healthy options. The initiative focuses on three key pillars: “better for you”, “better for the planet” and “better for communities”, encouraging informed purchases that benefit individuals, the environment and local economies. Majid Al Futtaim was the first retailer in the region to introduce environmental ratings and display embodied carbon footprint, driving a business uplift of up to 8%. 8 Apply regenerative landscape methods for health Agroecology, land restoration and conservation practices like cover cropping, reduced tillage and rotational grazing restore soil structure and biodiversity, helping to preserve moisture and reduce wind erosion and dust pollution that harm respiratory health. Healthier soils also improve plant health, supporting nutrition. Beyond health, agroecology also offers economic and environmental benefits; scaling agroecology to 40% of global cropland could cut 600 million tons of emissions.36 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysis projects that the shift to regenerative landscape methods will yield a 15-25% return over 10 years, though profits are likely to fall 30-60% over a 3-5 year transition period, before rebounding with 70-120% higher returns post-transition.37 9 Improve irrigation and drainage systems Irrigation and drainage management can significantly reduce vector-borne disease risks for outdoor workers by removing stagnant water that enables mosquito breeding. These measures offer a short time to value, quickly lowering disease risk and boosting worker productivity. A project in Sri Lanka that cleared canals and improved water flow led to near elimination of malaria in a local village during a 1990s outbreak. The efforts reduced incidence of the disease from 46% to just nine cases between January 2001 and November 2002 following intervention. Such engineering must be paired with continuous vector control and monitoring to lock in the benefits. 10 Apply precision agriculture techniques for health Digital and precision agriculture technologies improve yields while reducing chemical use, lowering worker exposure to pesticides and fertilizers, and cutting costs. Instead of treating entire fields, farmers can target specific areas, limiting respiratory risks and environmental impact. The most advanced solutions include weeding robots and AI-driven crop protection systems, which use cameras to spot weeds, pests or disease, reducing chemical inputs by up to 70%.39 More affordable solutions for smallholders include advisory SMS (short message service) that can guide planting timing or notify farmers of pest threats, delivering a return on investment (ROI) of up to 10:1.40 These interventions can increase yields within a single harvest cycle, in addition to benefitting the climate, biodiversity and community health. 11 Modify working practices for heat Adapting working practices in agriculture and processing to limit heat exposure and improve worker protection is essential. Despite cultural and structural barriers (for example, low technical education and capacity for transformation), many solutions are low-cost and quick to implement, such as shifting working hours to cooler periods, improving ventilation and cooling in indoor spaces, and providing personal cooling and hydration tools. For example, a vineyard in Florence reduced productivity losses by 30% by starting shifts two hours earlier (6am-3pm instead of 8am-5pm), demonstrating the value of simple, scalable and low-cost solutions.41 12 Change livestock handling and farming practices Improving livestock handling reduces zoonotic disease risk and protects production. Livestock farmers face high exposure and should be a priority for low-cost measures like personal protective equipment (PPE), disinfection and vaccination that can drastically reduce infection risk. For example, consistent glove use, masks and handwashing can reduce the annualized risk of cryptosporidiosis infection from roughly 30% to 1% for dairy farmers.42 Enhancing animal health through husbandry approaches, reduced overcrowding, regular vet care, and monitoring and early disease detection can significantly decrease the spread of disease. Finally, preventing farmland expansion into forests is crucial to minimize human/livestock/wildlife interaction. BCG analysis projects that the shift to regenerative landscape methods will yield a 15-25% return over 10 years. Building Economic Resilience to the Health Impacts of Climate Change 20

Building Economic Resilience to the Health Impacts of Climate Change 2025