Dr Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge, WHO South-East Asia
Climate change is an escalating crisis, with severe and accelerating health consequences. Amongst all WHO regions, the South-East Asia Region records the highest number of deaths from climate change annually.1 Air pollution causes millions of deaths each year, while increasing heatwaves are also increasing illness and mortality. Extreme weather events damage infrastructure, trigger outbreaks of waterborne and vector-borne diseases, displace millions, and disrupt health supply chains.2 Food and nutritional insecurity and risks to mental health and psychosocial wellbeing are growing.
This year, World Environment Day is being observed under the theme "Climate Action," a recognition that awareness is no longer sufficient, and that the imperative is implementation.
The Region has not waited. In 2017, the Male Declaration expressed the commitment of Member States to build health system resilience to climate change—operationalised by WHO through a Regional Framework for Action (2017–2027). Building on this, the Regional Plan of Action to Implement the Global Strategy for Health, Environment and Climate Change provides a 10-year set of actions at the regional level.3 The recently reconstituted Regional Expert Group on Environmental Determinants of Health and Climate Change advances evidence generation, technical collaboration, and capacity-building.
Beyond the region, WHO, as part of the joint secretariat of the Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Health and Environment, urges Member States to further strengthen the integration of health into environmental policies.4 The WHO-hosted Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) works to realize the COP26 ambition of climate resilient and sustainable health systems, and promotes the integration of the climate change and health nexus into respective national, regional, and global plans.5
Across the Region, Member States are taking significant action. Seven Member States have developed Health National Adaptation Plans (HNAP). Most have integrated climate considerations into health programs and established multisectoral coordination mechanisms. Seven have committed to building climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems under the COP26 Health Programme, and several are actively developing proposals for UNFCCC financing mechanisms, including the Green Climate Fund.6,7
However, major challenges remain, including limited financing, inadequate technologies and tools, competing health priorities, and insufficient research and evidence to guide action, particularly for protecting vulnerable populations.
WHO calls on governments to accelerate HNAP implementation with dedicated financing, and to work across health, environment, water, agriculture and disaster management sectors as one. Climate vulnerability assessments must be embedded at every level of the health system. Member States are encouraged to consider multilateral environmental agreements and make best use of international funding opportunities such as the Global Environmental Facility, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. It is imperative to recognize local communities, youth, and holders of Indigenous knowledge as leaders of locally grounded climate solutions.
On World Environment Day, we reaffirm that a healthy environment is the foundation of a healthy society, and that climate action is health action. Now, we must act.
1 RD’s Message - World Environment Day 2024
2 OIC’s Speech – WHA79 Side-Event on Climate-Resilient Health Supply Chains
4 RD Opening Speech - 5th Ministerial Meeting - Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Health & Environment
5 https://www.who.int/initiatives/alliance-for-transformative-action-on-climate-and-health
6 RD’s Closing Remarks – COP29 ATACH Day
7 RD’s Opening Speech – 2025 ATACH Meeting on accessing climate finance for health in SEAR