WHO: six climate and health measures could save 1.6 million lives a year

Climate change is not only about melting glaciers and hotter summers. It is also about people's health, and the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is a clear way to protect more of them.

Speaking at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said new WHO analysis shows that six priority climate and health actions could save 1.6 million lives every year.

What did Tedros say?

His main message: the time for announcements is over, and delivery has to begin. He called for health systems that can withstand climate shocks and produce fewer carbon emissions.

According to the analysis, five of the six actions could return about 24 dollars in economic benefit for every dollar invested. Tedros said health ministers should take these numbers to their finance ministers to argue for more funding.

Where is the gap?

Not in knowledge, he said, but in means. WHO's 2025 global survey on health and climate change found that more than 90% of countries see lack of funding as a major barrier to their national plans. Around 80% point to missing capacity.

That is what a new initiative on climate-resilient health is meant to fix. It lets countries share experience and learn from each other.

What did he ask ministers to do?

Tedros listed three requests:

• Put the Belém Health Action Plan into practice, join the new initiative and register national commitments on WHO's climate and health platform.
• Get health, finance, environment and energy ministries working together, count the economic cost of climate impacts on health, and include health in national adaptation plans and NDCs (countries' national climate pledges).
• Place health at the centre of climate negotiations, as an explicit area eligible for climate finance, with its share growing alongside adaptation funding.

What came before?

At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, last year, countries launched the Belém Health Action Plan, which 39 countries backed. This year's COP31 held the first day dedicated to health, along with a climate and health declaration.

What's next?

Tedros said health ministers are the first to see climate effects on people's lives, so their voices should be among the first heard. WHO says it will keep supporting countries at current and future climate conferences, including COP32.