What Happened at COP 30 on Climate and Health?

The negative impacts of climate change on human health and well-being are already being felt worldwide. The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), finds that rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world. The majority of the report’s global indicators tracking health threats have now reached record levels, showing how climate inaction is costing lives, straining health systems, and undermining economies.

IISD hosts an informal group of countries working to foster international collaboration to respond to the growing health threats of climate change, known as the Friends of Climate and Health. The group regularly convenes at COPs and intersessional meetings and explores ways to mainstream health in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations.

So, how did this play out at COP 30 in Belém? Our experts explain the key developments where progress was made on climate and health in Brazil.

People-Centred Climate Action

Climate and health received a lot of political attention in the lead-up to and during COP 30. In 2024, the government of Brazil presided over the G20 negotiations, and led the development of a G20 Health Ministerial Declaration on Climate Change, Health and Equity.

In 2025, Brazil emphasized the health impacts of climate change as a key theme for its COP 30 Presidency. It convened a climate and health round table at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2025, and organized a Global Conference on Climate and Health in July 2025, in partnership with WHO. During the world leaders’ summit in Belém ahead of COP 30, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated that “people must be at the centre of political decisions about climate and the energy transition” and promoted initiatives to reduce inequality, end hunger, and improve access to clean energy for the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society.

Brazil designated a dedicated COP 30 Health Day and launched the Belém Health Action Plan, a blueprint for global health systems to adapt to climate extremes. Brazil’s Ministry of Health and WHO also launched an action library—a collection of real-world examples of solutions that respond to the health impacts of climate change—showcasing what works, what’s been learned, and how others can follow suit.

Health was included as one of 30 priorities under the action agenda—the process that mobilizes non-state actors such as businesses and cities to take concrete voluntary climate actions—and was included in the new 5-year work plan of the high-level climate champions. This highlights the strong leadership from the health sector in supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Health Benefits From Climate Action

COP 30 also saw renewed political attention for the health co-benefits of climate action. A growing number of countries referred to the large health benefits from a transition away from fossil fuels in their statements—in particular in negotiations on the Just Transition Work Programme and Response Measures.

The health argument for climate action was also reflected in the final negotiated outcomes; the global mutirão decision on increasing climate ambition highlights “the economic and social benefits and opportunities of climate action, including economic growth, job creation, improved energy access and security, and improved public health.” Countries also agreed to develop a just transition mechanism while pointing to “associated gains in energy security, as well as health and environmental benefits, including reduced air pollution.” These represent the first-ever COP decisions to acknowledge the health benefits from climate action, and the first to highlight the role of air pollution.

Despite this, the final mutirão decision did not mention fossil fuels and failed to reference the previous COP 28 decision, which saw all countries commit to moving away from fossil fuels for the first time. Outside of the formal negotiations, however, momentum grew with a coalition of over 80 countries calling for a transition roadmap. In the closing plenary, COP 30 president André Corrêa do Lago proposed the development of a roadmap outside the formal UN regime. This was supported by Colombia, which agreed to host the first-ever International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels in April 2026.

The growing international collaboration on fossil fuel phase-out provides an important opportunity for continued engagement from the global health community, which has persistently denounced the health harms of fossil fuels since COP 26 in 2021, including through a recent report that systematically mapped out the health costs of fossil fuels across their life cycle.

Tracking Health Adaptation Progress 

One of this COP’s core priorities was agreeing on a set of indicators to track global adaptation progress—including adaptation for health and health systems. This followed the adoption of the framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation at COP 28 in 2023, which highlighted the key areas in which all countries need to build resilience, such as food, water, and health.

COP 30 was the culmination of a 2-year technical process to identify and develop a set of indicators to assess adaptation progress, with several leading global health organizations and experts working to ensure robust and measurable health indicators, a major milestone in health community engagement with UNFCCC processes.

A shared set of adaptation indicators is essential for informing the assessment of adaptation progress in the next global stocktake and ultimately improving the effectiveness of adaptation actions. COP 30 adopted a list of 59 adaptation indicators, including eight health adaptation indicators, several indicators for tracking means of implementation (finance, technology transfer, and capacity building), and suggestions for the disaggregation of indicators (e.g., by gender, age, geography, disease). However, last-minute changes to the list of indicators by some negotiators behind closed doors have compromised their credibility and will make them more difficult to operationalize. The challenge will focus on countries participating in the second round of the global stocktake, drawing on the Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) submissions, good practices, experiences, and potential opportunities to strengthen international cooperation on mitigation and adaptation, as well as to increase support for and implementation of nationally determined contributions. In all cases, there is an opportunity—based on nationally prioritized indicators and other relevant information—for countries to enhance the visibility and inclusion of health-related information in the next cycle.

Still, the adoption of a set of health adaptation indicators at COP 30 is an important step forward, as it will help monitor progress, drive support for health adaptation solutions that are context specific and locally relevant, and protect the most vulnerable population groups in a warming world. Further technical work and refinement of the indicators are expected in 2026 and 2027.

Loss and Damage to Health

The climate summit took place in the context of recent extreme weather events, including back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines, which displaced over a million people. This exemplifies the loss and damage that is already being caused by the climate crisis.

COP 30 completed the third review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM), which serves as a policy and knowledge hub on Loss and Damage for the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC. As part of the WIM, countries agreed to develop a regular State of Loss and Damage Report, which will likely include a dedicated health chapter. They also agreed to the development of (voluntary) guidelines for the inclusion of Loss and Damage information in BTRs. These guidelines offer an opportunity for countries to improve how they communicate the health impacts of climate change they already face and the actions they take to respond to these impacts.

The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage launched its first call for funding requests. A total of USD 250 million is available, and developing countries can submit funding requests of USD 5–20 million until June 2026.

Synergies Between the Three Rio Conventions

Since COP 28, momentum has been building to connect the dots between the three Rio Conventions addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation: the UNFCCC, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

At COP 30, countries held informal consultations on how the Rio Conventions could better work together, which were summarized in a short COP decision. Countries are invited to submit proposals to the UNFCCC on ways to enhance cooperation with international organizations and among the three Secretariats of the Rio Conventions, to be discussed at the intersessionals in June 2026. Outside of the negotiations, a new collaborative platform was launched to facilitate collaboration and coordination across these interlocking dimensions of a planet at risk.

During the negotiations on synergies, several countries highlighted the interlinkages between healthy ecosystems and the health of people and communities, as recognized in the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and acknowledged in the outcome of the first global stocktake. Future negotiations on this topic could explore the role of international health organizations and health treaties to drive the implementation of the Paris Agreement. 

Finance for Climate and Health Solutions

After 2 weeks of late-night talks, governments agreed to triple adaptation finance by 2035. This new goal is a welcome continuation beyond the sunset of the previous goal agreed at COP 26 in Glasgow, but falls short of the 2030 target originally proposed by developing countries. The final Belém political package also launched a new 2-year work programme on climate finance, but saw little progress on operationalizing the existing USD 300 billion climate finance goal.

Outside of the negotiations, however, momentum for climate and health finance gathered pace. A coalition of more than 35 philanthropies pledged USD 300 million to accelerate solutions at the intersection of climate and health. The Climate and Health Funders Coalition—which includes Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome Trust—announced it will back innovations, policies, and research on extreme heat, air pollution, and climate-sensitive diseases, as well as strengthen health systems and data integration.

During COP 30 Health Day, the World Bank—the world largest multilateral financier of climate and health projects—launched a set of “smart buys” for climate and health; a set of proven and high-value solutions that deliver climate resilience, health benefits and a return on investment, and can be scaled up now, including early warning systems and heat action plans. A similar report by Systemiq was launched ahead of COP and offers a list of 15 “adaptation and resilience best buys,” including for health.

The UNFCCC secretariat also announced a 3-year strategic partnership with the global health philanthropy Wellcome Trust, with the aim of accelerating health-centred climate solutions.

Gender and Health

One of the major successes coming out of COP 30 was the adoption of the Gender Action Plan (GAP). The plan sets out 27 actions for countries to take over the next 10 years, from enhancing support for national gender and climate change focal points, to improving gender-responsive budgeting and finance, protecting women environmental defenders, and promoting the leadership of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and rural women. It also addresses care work, health, and violence against women.

The COP 30 decision on gender was achieved despite coordinated pushback from a small group of countries to narrow the definition of gender to male and female sexes. The GAP sends a strong signal that climate change is not gender-neutral, and neither are its health consequences. For the actions in the GAP to be implemented successfully, governments will have to integrate gender across their adaptation and mitigation plans, and ensure oversight mechanisms that track progress rather than intentions.

A Dialogue for Health and Climate Change

Significant progress was made at COP 30 to integrate health considerations across the various negotiation streams, but countries also explored the creation of a stand-alone space to discuss health and climate change.

Following the participation of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus in the World Leaders Summit on November 7, where he called for health to be more formally integrated into the UN climate negotiations, the Government of Zimbabwe made a formal request to the UNFCCC on 9 November requesting the creation of a dedicated agenda item on health, which would create space for a structured dialogue between parties, negotiators, and health experts. This follows earlier calls by member countries of the Friends of Climate and Health to establish a UNFCCC dialogue on climate and health, to enable negotiators to identify opportunities for health to be integrated across key areas.

Given that the request was last-minute and did not receive public support from a wide range of countries, the COP 30 Presidency did not approve the creation of a new UNFCCC agenda item and advised that health should be considered under the existing agenda items on adaptation.

While COP 30 did not create a dedicated forum to discuss health, the continued integration of health in existing climate negotiations, alongside the growing momentum to implement climate and health solutions, has laid down an important marker of future ambition for healthier lives on a healthier planet.

What’s Next for Climate and Health?

Following COP 30, there are several opportunities to better integrate health in climate negotiations and processes.

In 2025, many countries integrated health priorities and activities in their new national climate plans—known as nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement. In 2026, attention will shift to how these national climate and health priorities get financed and implemented.

The Friends of Climate and Health will continue to explore health entry points across the various climate negotiation tracks in 2026. In the mitigation discussions, countries could further strengthen the health arguments for a transition away from fossil fuels. In adaptation, health indicators will require contextualization and operationalization. In the negotiations on loss and damage, countries will explore how to report on health losses and damages in their BTRs, while the first batch of loss and damage funding will be released.

The next two COPs also provide an opportunity to spotlight the health impacts of climate change. COP 31 in 2026 will be hosted by Türkiye and Australia. The pre-COP meeting will take place in the Pacific, enabling a pathway for Pacific priorities to remain at the centre of the climate talks.

The Pacific has long prioritized climate and health, including through the launch of a special initiative on health and climate in Small Island Developing States at COP 23 in 2019, which was presided over by Fiji.

In 2027, COP 32 will be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, making it the first COP summit to be held in a least developed country. This African COP will progress a set of adaptation indicators, including for health, and might provide a stronger focus on the growing health impacts of climate change.