Using Health Evidence to Unlock Faster, Fairer Climate Action

Climate change is impacting human health through extreme heat and weather events, changes in disease patterns, and food and water insecurity. The burning of fossil fuels which drives climate change is also linked to around 5 million premature deaths from air pollution each year. At the same time, there are significant opportunities to improve health and save lives through effective action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Despite the rapid growth of climate and health research, many decision-makers face challenges finding and using this evidence under time constraints, political pressure, and competing demands. Yet translating the latest climate and health evidence into actionable policy is essential to protect communities and support just, healthy transitions to net-zero societies. There is an urgent need to bring together clear, timely evidence on how climate action affects health and equity, and to make it easier to use throughout the policy process, from design to delivery and evaluation.

This event will convene climate, health, and policy experts to advance evidence-informed, health-centered climate action. Drawing on expertise from research programs such as the Pathfinder Initiative and the Digital Evidence Synthesis Tool Innovation for Yielding Improvements in Climate and Health (DESTINY), the session will show how climate and health evidence can be used to guide decision-making. The event will also explore opportunities for climate and health action in specific contexts, for example in cities, many of which are transitioning from being major contributors to climate change to innovators in the move towards healthier, more sustainable futures.