Why organisations must prioritise climate and health in 2024 – and how some already are

Every human has the right to health. This principle is enshrined in international human rights agreements but the gap between principle and reality is vast. In 2021 over half of the world’s population – some 4.5 billion people – did not have access to essential healthcare services.  

This chasm of health equity is the focus of this year’s World Health Day, with a theme of “My Health, My Right”. The ability – or inability – to access healthcare is driven by multiple factors: from the extent of government provision of universal healthcare to all citizens, individual finances available to cover health costs, the ability to understand and navigate health-related information, to the positive and negative impacts on health resulting from private sector activities.  

Climate change will increasingly impact health and demands on health services, risking a worsening of health inequality. The Lancet, one of the oldest peer-reviewed general medical journals, publishes an annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, spelling out the escalating 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.  

The way climate change influences health outcomes is a growing area of focus, as demonstrated by the first Health Day at COP28 in 2023, and 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. The climate crisis is a health crisis, but it is also a crisis of inequality and justice.  

The interconnections of climate, health, inequality and justice 

The links between climate change and inequality are stark: those most vulnerable in society, whether for their health or socio-economic status, 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 neighbourhoods without green spaces, in unhealthy buildings, or in places where there is little regulation on polluting industries. The drivers of climate change are drivers of air pollution, and the poorest in society are those most affected.  

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. The UN calls the need for climate-related loss and damage provision, particularly in low- and middle-income countries who have historically contributed far fewer greenhouse gas emissions “a moral imperative to act”.  

What action can the private sector take to advance climate and health outcomes? 

As part of the Climate and Health Coalition, a multi-stakeholder collaboration convened by Forum for the Future that focuses on the role of the private sector in taking action at the intersection between climate and health, we host regular network roundtable sessions, encouraging sharing across the many – and growing – number of organisations who work in this space.  

Here are some of our recent findings as to what the climate and health communities are focusing on in 2024: