Project Background

Climate services have the power to strengthen health systems by providing the intelligence needed to anticipate and respond to emerging health risks of climate and weather. By integrating climate information into health planning, countries can anticipate and prevent heat injury and infectious diseases, reduce exposure to air pollution, enhance food and water security, and improve access to healthcare.

Unfortunately, the power of climate science is critically underdeveloped and underutilized by health partners. Expanding the use of climate services offers a vital opportunity to protect vulnerable populations and build healthier, more resilient communities in a changing climate.

In response to this gap, the World Meteorological Organization, in partnership with the World Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome, has launched a global initiative to scale up the co-production and use of climate services for health.

Objectives

This initiative will improve health outcomes by mobilizing a network of resources and actors to scale up climate science and services that inform health decision-making at global scale. The project will expand access to digital tools and training, pilot operational capacities to strengthen health applied services and early warning, and boost technical assistance through a global alliance of technical expertise and a strengthened WHO-WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme.

By enhancing the capacity and cooperation of climate and health professionals to work together we aim to accelerate and enable climate-ready and resilient health systems that can save lives now and in the future.

Specific aims:

1. Accelerate climate and health science and services by establishing a Global Climate Services for Health Accelerator that institutionalizes and coordinates a collaborative network of stakeholders, actions, resources, and financing to maximize impact and sustainability.
2. Empower a new generation of professionals to scale local capacity for co-designing, delivering and applying climate intelligence for health that will protect over 250 million climate-impacted people, particularly from extreme heat.
3. Communicate, collaborate, and strengthen partnerships that inspire learning, share transformative best practices, and drive evidence-based decisions which harness the insights of climate and health science and services.

Outputs

Project activities are organized under 3 pillars: institutionalize science and services, empower capacity and services, and connect and engage. Core outputs will include:

• Developing climate-health workforce capacity through Technical Support Centers, Health-Met Desks, fellowships, and a global training program.
• Enhancing visibility and stakeholder engagement with a Climate and Health Communications Toolkit, strategy, storytelling and knowledge-sharing materials.
• Growing the Global Heat Health Information Network as the leading expert network on heat and health risk through its partners, regional hubs, learning mechanisms, events and publications.
• Launching a Global Climate Services for Health Accelerator to identify country needs, coordinate support, push innovation, and deliver technical expertise.
• Piloting scalable service delivery models in at least 10 countries (including LMICs and heat-prone nations) with technical and regional support.
• Using extreme heat as a flagship case to expand heat services, early warnings, global advocacy, governance mechanisms, and produce a UN-wide baseline report.
• Shaping the market for innovations in climate and health digital tools and information systems.
• Translating science into policy by advancing the WHO–WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme, strengthening research to operational partnerships, and institutional cooperation of health and climate institutions.
• Defining norms and standards to drive good practice through global guidance and tools, evidence generation, and science-based service standards.

Expected Outcomes

Improved global health will be achieved through the scaling up of climate services that inform health decision-making, as evidenced by the following measurable outcomes:

• 250 million climate-vulnerable individuals benefit from weather- and climate-informed health services in pilot areas.
• $30 million in financing is mobilized to expand the scale of climate services for health, annually.
• $100 million in additional funding leveraged to further accelerate climate services for health, annually.
• The gap between climate service provision and use is reduced:
  • Provision by meteorological agencies increases from 75% to 80%.
  • Use by health authorities increases from 23% to 50%.
  • Overall gap narrows from 52% to 30%.
• 50% of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) reach at least “essential,” capacity in delivering climate services for health.
• At least 10 technical partners join the Global Climate Services for Health Accelerator.
• 1,000 climate and health stakeholders are better equipped to deliver or interpret climate and weather data that protects health.
• 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) implement heat-health early warning services (up from a baseline of zero).