Brazil is crafting an action plan on climate and health ahead of COP30

Ensuring impacts on health are prioritized in climate change discussions hasn’t always been an easy sell in a discussion that was long dominated by imagery of melting icebergs and starving polar bears. But in recent years, the conversation has broadened beyond the environmental impacts of climate change — bringing greater visibility to the human health tolls such as cholera outbreaks, the impact of extreme heat on pregnant mothers and babies, natural disaster-battered clinics, and malnourished children. In 2023, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, in Dubai hosted the annual event’s first dedicated Health Day. Brazil, the host of this year’s COP30 in November, has also committed to elevating the issue. Last year, the country faced the largest dengue outbreak in its history — a disease that thrives on heavy rainfall, humidity, and rising temperatures — and had historic flooding that displaced more than half a million people. Brazil is currently drafting — in consultation with civil society, international organizations, academia, and other countries — an action plan for climate change adaptation in the health sector that will be presented to countries at COP30. It aims to offer a set of evidence-based, cost-effective adaptation actions to countries, Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said during the World Health Assembly, or WHA, this week in Geneva. This ranges from early warning systems to strategic medicine stockpiles. “We are rapidly approaching a point of no return in global temperature rise and environmental degradation. … The consequence for public health must not be underestimated,” he said. “Our proposal is grounded in the guiding principles of health equity, climate and health leadership, good governance, and social participation.” These discussions come amid an increasingly polarized global environment with a shift away from multilateralism. On his first day in office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump said his country will withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement — an international treaty aiming to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Padilha said he hopes the COP meeting in Brazil will prove “multilateralism is alive” and that the world can come together “to face the greatest challenge of our century.” The work around the action plan is supported by the Baku COP Presidencies Continuity Coalition for Climate and Health. It was launched by Azerbaijan — which hosted COP29 last year — in hopes of creating continued conversations around elevating the issue of health as the global climate discussions transition between country hosts each year. Dr. Mariângela Simão, the secretary of health and environmental surveillance at Brazil’s Ministry of Health — who formerly worked in a senior leadership role at the World Health Organization — presented a draft action plan to WHA attendees on Monday. “We are seeing an increased consensus around the issues of climate change and health — and we also are coming closer and closer to [being] very operational about it,” she said. Here are some highlights of the draft — which will be further refined in the lead-up to COP30: • Improve health surveillance and early warning systems. That includes linking environmental, meteorological, and climate monitoring data with health surveillance systems to anticipate climate-related public health threats. “If you don't have information, if you're not monitoring, you don't have anything,” Simão said. • Identify priorities. That includes developing lists of health risks and diseases associated with climate change — and strategies to respond. • Create strategic stockpiles of supplies, vaccines, and medicines. “We know what needs to be in place when we are hit by an emergency,” she said. • Adopt standardized terms and concepts related to the climate-health nexus. While developing these can be a lengthy process, “we actually don't have much time — so we need to speed up,” she said. • Promote community resilience and climate awareness. “This is a big challenge,” she said. This includes support training initiatives at local, national, and regional levels that are tailored to different cultures and integrate Indigenous and traditional practices into planning. • Train managers in health systems on risk management. This also includes developing guidelines around keeping health workers safe and ensuring they’re equipped to deliver quality services during extreme weather. • Ensure adaptation and response strategies are gender-responsive. This includes ensuring that continuity of reproductive and maternal and child health services is included. • Promote climate-adaptive public policies. This includes reducing air pollution and heat islands, preventing fires and dust storms, ensuring access to health and sustainable diets and quality water, and providing sustainable public transportation and climate-resilient housing. • Integrate mental health and psychosocial support. Health systems and climate emergency response must also be accessible for people with disabilities, and include continued access to medications, assistive devices, and caregiver support. Brazil held an initial meeting in March to help craft this draft and will host a global conference on climate change and health in July in the lead-up to COP30. Speakers at WHA emphasized that while many of the tools to tackle the climate crisis are available, their uptake is limited. “Only half of national meteorological services, national weather services, issue heat alerts, and just 26 countries have dedicated heat — health early warning systems. Doubling this coverage could save nearly 100,000 lives annually,” said Ko Barrett, deputy secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, during WHA.