The climate crisis is a health crisis fueled by an untenable status quo. It is threatening our food, water, and air, worsening disease and extreme weather, and putting our physical, mental, and social well-being at risk. While the threat of the climate crisis is universal, the speed and severity of the impacts are not. Those who did the least to cause this emergency suffer the most as climate shocks push inequitable and fragile health systems past the breaking point.
The need to change course becomes more apparent by the day. If we take action right now, we can do more than simply avert catastrophe — we can seize the chance to achieve a better world. We have the resources, technology, and evidence needed to cultivate societies where every person enjoys good health, well-being, and shared prosperity without harming our planet.
By joining forces for climate and health, we can decide the future we will live in. Together, we must:
• Stop the crisis at the source: Rapidly and equitably phase out fossil fuels, starting with the largest polluters first, to prevent further heating, stop health threats from escalating unchecked, and reap immediate and local health benefits.
• Build resilient systems and societies to safeguard health for all, once and for all: Adapt quickly to protect people’s physical, mental, and social health and well-being and create climate-safe futures.
• Mobilize the resources the most affected communities need and deserve: Prioritize equity, justice, and local priorities across the climate response and ensure no country or community is left behind in the transition to healthy, sustainable, and affordable renewable energy, food, transportation, and livable cities.
• Define success in terms of people’s health: Hold leaders accountable to a health-centered response to the climate crisis that protects the well-being and livelihoods of people everywhere.
A better world is possible — and we must all participate in demanding it. Those in positions of power must take swift and decisive actions based on the best available evidence, the lived experience of frontline communities, and ongoing monitoring to correct the course as we learn more. Principles of equity, justice, and human rights must remain our centres of gravity. The climate and health movement belongs to all of us, from the health workforce on the frontlines to national decision-makers across every sector, geography, and cause.
The purpose of this strategic narrative is to:
• Align the growing climate and health movement around a shared vision of a society that can support the health and well-being of all people and operate in harmony with the environment.
• Provide common language to facilitate crucial and productive conversations that drive solutions among all relevant climate and health stakeholders.
• Speak cohesively, accessibly, and persuasively to decision-makers to increase urgency for action, communicate accountability for inaction, and drive home what is at stake
1. From crisis to better world: Joining forces for climate and health
The climate crisis is a health crisis fueled by an untenable status quo. The cost of inaction and neglect is now measured in lives and livelihoods lost to more extreme and deadly natural disasters, changing disease patterns, disruptions to where people can safely live, and threats to life-sustaining food, water, and air. As these accelerating threats take their toll on people’s physical, mental, and social well-being, the climate crisis is pushing already weak and inequitable health systems past their breaking point.
While the threat of the climate crisis is universal, the speed and severity of the impacts are not. The people who have done the least to cause this emergency, including in the Global South and polar regions, suffer more enormous impacts faster. Communities that are already marginalized — including young people, Indigenous communities, poorer communities, people with disabilities, people suffering the effects of conflict, and those who experience race- and gender-based oppression — will face exacerbated risk, and if we’re not careful, could be harmed by hasty and poorly executed responses.
If we take action sooner rather than later, we can do more than simply avert catastrophe — we can seize the chance to achieve a better world. We have the resources, technology, and evidence needed to cultivate societies where every person enjoys good health, well-being, and shared prosperity in ways that protect our climate and nature. Ending our dangerous dependency on fossil fuels and building more resilient and sustainable health, food, water and other vital systems will improve the health of future generations, save lives right now, and protect the environmental balance necessary to sustain life. We cannot become so numb or overwhelmed by the crisis that we forgo this opportunity to bring a better world within reach.
By joining forces for climate and health, we can decide the future we will live in. A strong movement that seeks to protect human health by stabilizing the environment's health is needed to increase the global response's motivation, speed, and scale. Let us collectively seize this moment to transform growing awareness into the necessary action.
2. Heal the planet, heal ourselves: calls to action for climate and health
While the climate and health landscape represents a wide range of issues, geographies, sectors, and constituencies — all working on unique priorities — these are four fundamental calls to action that we can all stand behind and collectively support in our work.
Together, we call on leaders and decision-makers across sectors to:
1. Stop the crisis at the source: A rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and a just transition to clean energy — prioritizing the largest polluters first —must mitigate threats to human health and unlock incredible benefits for our individual and collective well-being. Our health also depends on defending our environment, from forests critical to regulating the earth’s temperature to the biodiversity essential to our food systems, medicines, ecosystem stability, and more.
2. Build resilient systems and societies to safeguard health for all, once and for all: Even as we work to prevent further heating, the climate crisis is already threatening people’s physical, mental, and social health and well-being worldwide. We need to adapt the many systems that impact health to be more resilient and equitable so they can better withstand shocks – from climate-fueled disasters to future pandemics — and uphold everyone’s human right to health.
3. Mobilize the resources the most affected communities need and deserve: The communities that have suffered the most loss and damage from the climate crisis often bear the least responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions. It is in our best interests to ensure communities have the financial resources to rebuild, respond, and put locally-led solutions to work. It is also our responsibility to push for the mobilization of new funds, particularly emphasising wealthier nations that have been polluting for longer.
4. Define success in terms of people’s health: When measuring the impact of actions and investments to address the climate crisis, we must keep people at the centre. Prioritizing the inclusion of health in metrics of success ensures we are creating people-centred solutions to the climate crisis that deliver tangible benefits for human health.
3. Guiding principles for climate and health action
Core principles must guide all our actions:
• Believe that a better world is possible — and participate in demanding it: We cannot let pessimism make us complacent about escalating temperatures and threats. At the same time, we still have the chance to curb the severity of the crisis. Together, we can hold those with the worst track records of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution responsible for the systemic action needed to prevent further warming and human suffering.
• Allocate responsibility and resources in a way that advances equity and justice: Climate and health policies must meet the needs of the most affected groups and cannot do so unless these communities are at the front of the room, around the table, and on the agenda wherever decisions are made. This is more than a bid for fair representation — it is our pathway to the best possible outcomes. At the same time, the most significant accountability for action lies with the countries, companies, and communities most responsible for creating this crisis, along with leaders who shape systemic decisions.
• Ground all climate action in evidence and lived experience while actively fighting disinformation: We have the knowledge we need to take meaningful action, from decades of climate evidence to proven solutions to the lived experiences of frontline communities who have been protecting the planet and responding to the crisis for a long time. At the same time, the crisis is emerging and escalating, and we need to continue researching and monitoring to correct it when necessary. We must also actively fight misinformation and disinformation about climate change, including by working with community health workers and other trusted brokers of information.
• Work across every sector, geography, and cause: Tackling the climate crisis and building resilient communities will require us to build new relationships and identify solutions in every industry that determines health outcomes. Our efforts must be multi-sectoral and non-duplicative.
4. We do not act alone: The many allies & spaces working on climate and health
From “Health in All Policies” and planetary health to “One Health” and disaster risk reduction, people are championing a variety of frameworks for understanding how human health and the health of our planet are inextricably linked.
To ensure progress on climate and health, we must think and work together across sectors, including everything from better energy and healthcare systems to building, organising, and connecting communities to achieve a more harmonious relationship with nature and the natural resources we rely on.