Climate change is adversely affecting the health of populations around the world, with the greatest impacts in low-income countries. The future health impacts of climate change will vary over spatial and temporal scales, and will depend on changing socioeconomic and environmental conditions, as well as the preparedness of communities and health systems to avoid preventable health problems.

Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments (V&As) are a key instrument to identify and prepare for changing health risks. V&A assessments can provide information for decision-makers on the extent and magnitude of likely health risks attributable to climate change, as well as suggest priority policies and programmes that can prevent or reduce the severity of future impacts.

V&A assessments do not only improve the understanding of the linkages between climate change and health, they can also serve as a baseline analysis against which changes in disease risks and protective measures can be monitored. They can also provide the opportunity for building capacity and can strengthen the case for investment in health protection, as well as inform national adaptation planning and other climate policies.

The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agenda, aims to support countries in identifying medium- and long-term adaptation planning needs to respond and adapt to climate change. The NAP builds on the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) process that was designed to support least-developed countries (LDCs) in planning actions to respond to their urgent and immediate adaptation needs. 

The health national adaptation process (H-NAP) process highlights and addresses the health risks of climate change and aims to manage these risks by ensuring that the health sector is properly represented in the NAP process. Proper representation of the health sector is critical, as its exclusion can lead to policy-makers overlooking essential actions to protect population health, potentially resulting in adverse health impacts from policies and programs in other sectors, and undermining efforts to protect the environment. Ensuring adequate coordination between sectors can also maximize synergies and promote health co-benefits across health determining sectors such as energy, agriculture, housing, and water.

Key concepts to consider when building the health adaptation process to manage the risks of climate-relevant health outcomes include: 

• Assessments to collect information on the current burden of climate-sensitive health outcomes. For example, vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&A) provide information on outcomes that cause the largest health burdens. Adaptation will help populations prepare for changes that could increase the incidence, seasonality or geographic range of climate-sensitive health outcomes and identify factors that make their control more difficult.
• The effectiveness of current interventions to manage the health risks of climate change. Understanding the extent to which current health policies and programmes are effective, and the reasons for limits to effectiveness, is a critical step in understanding what modifications are necessary.
• Projections of where, when and how health burdens could be modified in response to climate change.

WHO has developed guidance to help countries ensure that the process of managing the health risks of climate change is effectively integrated into the overall NAP process. This guidance outlines steps to engage in the overall NAP process at the national level, identify national strategic goals for building health resilience to climate change, and develop a national plan with prioritized activities to achieve these goals within a specific time period and given available resources.

Healthcare facilities serve as the frontline defense against climate change impacts, providing essential services and care to individuals affected by climate hazards. However, these facilities can also generate significant greenhouse gas emissions, environmental waste, and contamination, which may be infectious, toxic, or radioactive, posing threats to public health. Thus, it is crucial to enhance the capacity of healthcare facilities to protect and improve community health in the face of a changing climate and to ensure they operate sustainably by optimizing resource use and minimizing waste release. Climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable healthcare facilities improve the quality and accessibility of care, reduce operational costs, and support better affordability, making them a key component of universal health coverage (UHC). 

To set the course for a future with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agreement established the international goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C. Every country that has ratified the Paris Agreement thereby also agrees to regularly prepare and communicate a nationally determined contribution (NDC) to reflect progress toward its highest possible national climate ambition.

Countries can strengthen their NDCs by developing health-inclusive and health-promoting climate targets and policies. The inclusion of public health considerations in the NDCs provides an opportunity for increased ambition, for example through the consideration of the co-benefits of climate action in decision-making, the creation of climate-resilient health systems or through prioritized adaptation actions.

WHO has developed guidance to help countries ensure the health-inclusiveness of their NDCs, and provides support to countries in the formulation and implementation of healthy NDCs.