Building resilience for health through climate services, now and in the future
By the Climate Centre
A new report by the Climate Centre looks at the extent to which climate services for health – including early warning, risk maps, seasonal calendars, and climate projections related to health issues – are currently factored into decision-making in healthcare systems, and how that relationship might be deepened.
It includes a review of evidence globally and case studies of Bangladesh, Colombia, Malawi and Senegal encompassing governance, leadership, stakeholder engagement, data integration, and dissemination, and it was launched today at a side-event at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
Climate Centre health lead Meghan Bailey said: “As humanitarians, we are seeing a growth in the availability of tools and products that aim to estimate and anticipate climate risks to health, but we’ve not seen a concomitant growth in their use for decision-making. We undertook this report to try and understand this disconnect and to point towards ways forward.”
The potential of climate services to mitigate related health-risks such as extreme heat and vector-borne diseases like malaria is well recognized, but how exactly their contribution can be maximized has yet to be conclusively defined in existing literature.
‘We undertook this report to try and point ways forward’
“In countries where climate services for health are being implemented, supportive leadership was evident, showing that once the benefits are recognized, widespread support follows,” according to the report (executive summary).
“Despite this, much development remains rooted in academic settings, with limited collaboration with implementing ministries, which hampers ownership, sustainability, and large-scale adoption.”
Implementation is often hampered by a lack of agreements, standard operating procedures and policies on data, privacy, and regulation, while the absence of national guidance and policy frameworks limits consistent cross-sector collaboration.
The short-term nature of funding – often linked to academic research grants – limits long-term sustainability while a lack of planning for maintaining infrastructure is “a major obstacle”.
Opening today’s side-event – jointly hosted by the Climate Centre and The Rockefeller Foundation, which also supported the report – IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said that “we need the good solid evidence, facts and data” that will enable programmatic actions on the ground that make a difference and on the scale required.
The health issue “has become very politicized” in many parts of the world, he said, and this was obstructing “serious, thoughtful discussion”.
Citing an IFRC youth survey conducted during the pandemic that found the main source of anxiety affecting the mental health of young people was not Covid but climate change, he said the IFRC was trying to have a “balanced conversation” that nevertheless “constantly highlights the seriousness of the climate crisis”.
Mr Chapagain serves on the WHS council, as does his predecessor Elhadj As Sy, of the Swiss-based Kofi Annan Foundation, who is its co-chair; the 2025 WHS side-event also included Petra Khoury, the IFRC’s Global Director of Health and Care.
‘We need good solid evidence, facts and data’
The new report recommends greater use of platforms such as workshops and conferences that would gather government officials and meteorologists, as well as academics, NGOs and the private sector – all designed to “showcase the added value of climate services for health and stimulate demand for the development of climate services for health.”
Government and met services, particularly, acting in concert, should set up leadership models, solicit feedback, institutionalize monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and exchange staff.
Donors, meanwhile, should allocate funding at multiple levels – to data managers, analysts, policy-makers, health workers – to enable effective use of climate information in the health sector, and support “interoperable data systems”.
On the question of data, ministries and met services should advocate for investment in local infrastructure “for collection and processing, ensuring harmonized formats, standards, and sub-national integration”.
All these actors should ensure information on the links between climate and health is accessible both to decision-makers and communities, and with “clear responsibilities for monitoring, timely information flow, and action based on early warnings.”
A resident of coastal Potou village, Senegal, shows off her new long-lasting insecticidal net. Senegal is one of four case-study countries featured in a new Climate Centre report, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, on climate services for health and how their potential for mitigating related health risks such as heatwaves and vector-borne diseases like malaria might be maximized. (File: photo Maggie Hallahan/Olyset via IFRC)