Why talking about health could change the course of climate change – for the better | Climate Week

This year Climate Group is introducing the first ever Health Program as part of Climate Week NYC. As health takes on an increasingly important role in our fight against climate change, we hear from Dr. Sally Uren OBE from Forum for the Future about the work they have been doing in the climate and health space, and why talking about health could change the course of climate change – for the better.

Why climate and health?

COP28 featured the very first Health Day, a signal that the climate and health agendas are beginning to converge.  The Health Day was also the springboard for the COP UAE Declaration on Climate and Health, which calls for the urgent need to understand and act on the connections between climate and health.

What has prompted this convergence of climate and health?  One key reason is that we already witnessing the devastating impacts of climate change on human health. The Lancet, one of the oldest peer-reviewed general medical journals, publishes an annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, spelling out the intensifying and converging risks that climate change is causing to health. The 2023 report calls out the escalation of heat-related deaths, economic losses from declines in productivity linked to heat stress, and food insecurity.  These human and economic impacts were also spelled out at the World Economic Forum at Davos this January: climate change will account for an additional 14.5 million deaths, $12.5 trillion in economic losses, and $1.1 trillion in additional costs to healthcare systems by 2050.  

The climate crisis is a health crisis, but it is also a crisis of inequality and justice.  

The links between climate change and inequality are stark: those most vulnerable in society are most likely to be severely affected by climate change impacts. This is true in an acute crisis, such as a climate-caused disaster. For example, those with physical disabilities are more vulnerable in the event of a hurricane.  

But it is also true for chronic climate-related impacts. Those who live in areas of high air pollution are disproportionately more likely to also be suffering with other linked effects of poverty – to be living in neighborhoods without green spaces, in unhealthy buildings, or in places where there is little regulation on polluting industries. 

This is a crisis of justice, because in general, those who have contributed least to climate change, are often those who are most vulnerable and most impacted. 

An unparalleled role for the private sector

The private sector has a potentially outsized role in delivering actions that have co-benefits for climate and health.  Climate change mitigation through decarbonization is arguably one of the single biggest global health interventions that can be acted upon right now.  The same is true for climate change adaptation which builds resilience to the health impacts of climate.  

Every action a business takes to decarbonize can have a positive impact for health.  Ditto every action taken to build adaptation can improve health outcomes. The climate justice and health equity agendas are inextricably linked.

Enter The Climate & Health Coalition

Forum for the Future founded the Climate and Health Coalition in 2021 to accelerate the role of the private sector in driving health and climate-positive outcomes. Today, the Coalition is supported by six healthcare companies, Bayer, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Bupa, Haleon, Reckitt and Walgreens Boots Alliance, plus two companies active in the food sector, Britvic and SIG.

The focus of the Coalition’s work is to enable business to act. The Coalition’s first publication focused on the case for action and general guidance for action businesses can take in their direct operations, through their products and services, in their value chains, and in influencing the enabling environment.

The second guidance document focused on more detailed actions business can take, with a deep dive into healthcare, food, tech and finance

Most recently, at COP28, we launched the Climate and Health Toolkit, a toolkit specifically for the healthcare sector.  The toolkit helps businesses in the healthcare sector self-assess where they are on their journey towards acting at the climate / health intersection and what their barriers and enablers to action are.  There are also case studies for added inspiration.

How can businesses get started in taking action on climate and health?

Here are five steps any business can take:

• Understand your organization’s role in driving health outcomes. These might be both evident and hidden. For example, a healthcare company might drive positive health outcomes through their products and services, but negative health and climate outcomes in their value chains. 
• Understand the business case for action. This will be individual to every organization but will be based on where there is “value at risk” from climate impacts on human and planetary health, and where there is “value to gain” in building resilience in your operations and through products and services oriented is a valuable strategic approach. 
• Work upstream and downstream. Receiving healthcare for poor health is a downstream response. It is imperative to consider the health-harming factors that occurred upstream: the air that people have breathed, the food they have consumed, their access – or lack of – to clean water and thriving nature. 
• Collaborate. Responding to the kind of systemic risks that the dual crises of climate and health requires radical collaboration – the scale and urgency of the challenges require it. Being part of Coalitions, such as the Climate and Health Coalition, means joining up with cross-sector collaborations, sharing both innovative practices and the struggles and failures and advocating for both health and climate considerations into all policymaking.  
• Time to think and act differently. We will only accelerate change if leaders across all sectors start to think and act differently about the challenges that face our planet and humanity. For more inspiration on visionary leadership, engage with the Leadership module of the Climate and Health toolkit.

Fostering Connections across the climate & health ecosystem.

The Coalition also brings together non-private sector actors that are working in the increasingly busy, burgeoning space of climate and health. Some of these are shown below.

Current Areas of Focus for the Coalition

The Climate & Health Coalition has five priorities for 2024.  We:

1. Aim to deepen positive private sector impact in healthcare by focusing on specific workstreams such as policy engagement, as well as continuing to build out the digital toolkit. Specifically, we will be adding a module designed to help healthcare businesses engage their value chains in climate and health.
2. Are extending the coalition beyond healthcare.  Health and climate are both systemic challenges, and require action in multiple systems; our health is not just dependent on healthcare, but the food we eat, where we live etc.  This is why we have initiated a food cluster within the Coalition where we will build a digital toolkit for food sector actors, with a view to launching alongside COP29.
3. Plan to continue build and strengthen the network of Coalition Associate Partners, systemic change requires collaboration and joining up – this is one key objective for the Coalition.​
4. Will host sessions designed to build systemic and horizon-scanning capacity in the climate & health ecosystem. ​
5. Will continue to elevate the climate & health narrative​

Just how could a joint focus on health change course of climate/accelerate impact and action?

In at least five ways:

• Talking about human health can make the climate change agenda much more accessible. We know that for many, the climate conversation can feel technical and removed from day-to-day realities. Front-footing a climate change conversation with health impacts makes climate change real and relatable.  In turn this can accelerate action.
• Health can depoliticize what can be a political agenda.  In some parts of the world climate change has been co-opted into a discourse on political polarization.  Human health can be far less political.  Humans generally really care about the other humans in their life. A conversation on human health can quickly lead to actions that mitigate and adapt to a changing climate.
• Bringing climate and health together sharpens the focus on equity.  Access to conditions that can deliver positive health outcomes is an underpinning feature of climate justice.  A focus on health can accelerate action towards climate resilient communities.
• Bringing climate and health together can also help to avoid false choices between climate mitigation and adaptation.  The faster we can decarbonize, the quicker we can stabilize our climate, avoiding catastrophic impacts on human health.  The sooner we invest in climate adaptation, the sooner we build resilience.  This is not a case of mitigation or adaptation – this is an urgency for both.
• Finally, introducing health into the conversation widens the climate community. The reality is that climate change is everyone’s business.  Already we are seeing benefits of the health development community joining forces with the climate community from sharing of information to co-investment.  It’s early days, but the more we can break down silos between professional communities, the sooner we will reach a critical mass for systems change.

Health is everyone’s business.  So is climate.  Bringing them together has the potential to deliver co-benefits at scale and pace.