Investing in health is investing in climate resilience, says WHO envoy

Health is often cast as a cost rather than an investment, but Vanessa Kerry has argued that this mindset is dangerously outdated. The CEO of Seed Global Health and the World Health Organization’s special envoy for climate change and health said stronger health systems are not only central to prosperity but also vital for protecting communities against the impacts of climate change. “[We need] to start thinking of a health workforce not as a cost, but as an investment. It’s job creation,” Kerry said at Devex Impact House on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this year. Her message revolved around two themes: health drives prosperity, and investing in health is one of the most effective ways to build climate resilience. Health as an economic driver Kerry argued that the world is paying a high price for treating health as an afterthought. Chronic underinvestment has left health systems fragile, and when resources are suddenly withdrawn, the effects can be catastrophic. She pointed to recent U.S. aid cuts, which she said collapsed referral networks, disrupted supply chains, and made essential medicines vanish — some costing as little as 16 cents a day. The result, she added, is an estimated half a million lives lost directly because of those funding decisions. That is why she insists health must be seen as an economic driver, not a drain. In some countries, the health sector makes up nearly a one-fifth of gross domestic product. Between 2000 and 2011, investments in health accounted for a quarter of GDP growth in low- and middle-income countries. And in the U.S., the economic impact is already being felt in reverse, with extreme heat alone stripping $100 billion a year from productivity. At the heart of this equation are people. The world faces a shortage of 10 million health workers, including 6 million in sub-Saharan Africa. Doctors, nurses, and midwives, Kerry said, are “the very versatile front line of responding to all the crises that we see today.” Technology may support them, but it cannot replace human judgment in emergencies. These workers also create ripple effects beyond the clinic. They provide stable jobs, strengthen local economies, and anchor communities. “When a woman is hemorrhaging in childbirth, it is a human being who hangs the bag of blood to save her life,” Kerry said. “That same person is also contributing to the prosperity of a nation.” Health as climate resilience If health underpins prosperity, Kerry said, it also underpins survival in a warming world. “Health is the lived experience of climate change,” she argued, pointing to rising heat illness, surging respiratory disease from air pollution, and the spread of infectious diseases into new regions. Clinics and health workers, she added, are essential to adaptation. A functioning health system can treat heatstroke, respond to outbreaks after floods, and keep patients with chronic conditions alive when disasters strike. That is why she frames investment in health as an investment in resilience. Stronger health systems mean fewer lives lost to climate-related disasters, faster recovery from shocks, and greater stability for communities on the front lines. “We have the data,” Kerry said. “We’re just not acting on it.” The urgency to act Despite the clear case, Kerry argued, resources have not flowed at the scale required. Fortune 500 companies reported $1.7 trillion in profits last year, while U.S. philanthropic assets stand at $1.6 trillion. “The money is actually there,” Kerry said. Philanthropy “does not need more data to know how to act right now ... Now is the moment to take a risk.” For Kerry, the same is true of evidence. “We have the data,” she said. “We’re just not acting on it.” Update, Sept. 26, 2025: This article has been updated to rectify some paraphrases of Vanessa Kerry’s remarks that were presented as direct quotes.