Climate and health

No part of the world is immune from the harmful effects of climate change on health.

Unless action is taken now, global temperatures are set to rise 1.5 degrees by 2034(opens in a new tab). This will lead to glaciers melting, sea levels rising, rainforests dying and extreme weather events intensifying, including tropical storms, floods and droughts.

Each of these climate impacts has specific and serious consequences for human health. Millions of lives and livelihoods will be lost.

Despite this, there is a chronic underinvestment in the field of climate change and health.

Working in partnership with the communities most affected, Wellcome will support research and science-based solutions for taking on this urgent health challenge.

We're currently in the process of developing focused goals for our strategy for climate and health, and we'll publish more information about this soon. 

We're grateful for guidance and challenge from a small group of expert external advisers who are supporting us in our strategy development: Andy Haines(opens in a new tab), Hala Audi(opens in a new tab) and Tolullah Oni(opens in a new tab).

Wellcome also funds discovery research into a broad range of disciplines, including infectious disease, population health and genomics. Insights and tools from this research will contribute to solving this health challenge, as well as increasing broader understanding of life, health and wellbeing.

Since 2015, we've supported a global community of researchers who are taking on the challenges that food systems, increasing urbanisation and climate change pose to our health. We’ve gained many valuable insights that will help to inform our future climate and health work.  

Find out more about the Our Planet, Our Health programme, and the grants we awarded.