Strengthening COP Meetings through Cross-Sectoral Thematic Convergence and Highlighting Health in COPs
Abstract
Background: The spread of extreme climate events driven by the trajectory toward a 2.8°C increase has worsened health outcomes, a subject that has gained the attention of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the past decade. In this commentary, the authors highlight significant aspects of COPs (Conferences of the Parties) and what should be pursued by the health community.
Methods: Based on a critical review of published reports, policy documents, gray literature, and an examination of pivotal events and outcomes from recent COPs, emerging trends in COP negotiations and potential areas for prioritized action in future iterations have been identified.
Results: The initiatives, platforms, health sector measurements, and climate-related academic education and research presented at COP meetings need to place greater emphasis on investment in climate-health projects to encourage further contributions from the health community.
Conclusion: Countries’ contributions and commitments to mitigating the health impacts of climate change can be assessed by evaluating their investments in evidence-based climate actions within health systems and by demonstrating the resulting outcomes at upcoming COP meetings. Furthermore, COP meetings should prioritize fostering intersectoral collaboration to mobilize funding for scientific research and the scaling of applicable and accessible platforms.
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2. Field CB. Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change: Cambridge University Press; 2012.
3. Ritchie HaR, P. Natural Disasters: Our World in Data; 2024 [Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters.
4. Stocker TF, Qin D, Plattner G-K, M T, Allen SK, Boschung J, et al. Come Heat or High Water: Tackling the Humanitarian Impacts of the Climate Crisis Together. In: Societies IFoRCaRC, editor. 2023.
5. Save-the-Children. 2023 In Review: Climate disasters claimed 12,000 lives globally in 2023: reliefweb; 2023 [Available from: https://reliefweb.int/report/world/2023-review-climate-disasters-claimed-12000-lives-globally-2023.
6. UNCHCR. Displaced on the frontlines of the climate emergency. 2023.
7. Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Scovronick N, Sera F, Royé D, Schneider R, Tobias A, et al. The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change. 2021;11(6):492-500.
8. Thomas K, Hardy RD, Lazrus H, Mendez M, Orlove B, Rivera‐Collazo I, et al. Explaining differential vulnerability to climate change: A social science review. 2019;10(2):e565.
9. Shukla A, Skea J, Reisinger A, Slade R, Fradera R, Pathak M, et al. Summary for policymakers. 2022.
10. UNFCCC. About the Santiago Network: United Nation Climate Change; 2024 [Available from: https://unfccc.int/santiago-network/about.
11. Elmrayed S. Health topics for the COP28 agenda2023.
12. LSHTM. Climate change and planetary health: LSHTM at COP29: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; 2024 [Available from: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/centre-climate-change-and-planetary-health/news/441796/lshtm-cop29-0.
13. WHO. Over 40 million health professionals demand bold health and climate action at COP28 2023 [Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/02-12-2023-over-40-million-health-professionals-demand-bold-health-and-climate-action-at-cop28.
14. coP28UAE. HEALTH, RELIEF, RECOVERY & PEACE DAY 2023 [Available from: https://www.cop28.com/en/health-relief-recovery-and-peace.
15. WHO. Baku COP29 advances health-climate commitments with new coalition World Health Organization2024 [Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/18-11-2024-baku-cop29-advances-health-climate-commitments-with-new-coalition.
16. COP28. Over 120 countries back COP28 UAE Climate and Health Declaration delivering breakthrough moment for health in climate talks 2023 [Available from: https://www.cop28.com/en/news/2023/12/Health-Declaration-delivering-breakthrough-moment-for-health-in-climate-talks.
17. WHO. Health at COP29: World Health Organization; 2024 [Available from: https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/climate-change-and-health/advocacy-partnerships/talks/health-at-cop29.
18. WHO. COP29 SPECIAL REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH: HEALTH IS THE ARGUMENT FOR CLIMATE ACTION. 2024.
19. Azerbaijan CB. Baku Initiative on Human Development for Climate Resilience 2024 [Available from: https://cop29.az/en/pages/baku-initiative-on-human-development-for-climate-reslience-concept.
20. van Daalen KR, Wyma N, Schauer-Berg J, Blom IM, Mattijsen J, Othman R, et al. The global health community at international climate change negotiations. BMJ Glob Health. 2024;9(4).
21. ColumbiaUniversity. Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education: Mailman School of Public Health; 2024 [Available from: https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/programs/global-consortium-climate-health-education.
22. IAP. COP29: IAP Shares Expertise on Climate: InterAcademy Partnership; 2024 [Available from: https://www.interacademies.org/news/cop29-iap-shares-expertise-climate-education-and-health.
23. Arora M, Comrie AC, Ernst KEJFiPH. Assessing climate and health curriculum in graduate public health education in the United States. 2023;11:1124379.
24. CARE. Climate & Resilience Academy [Available from: https://careclimatechange.org/academy/.
25. ClimateFresk. 2024 [Available from: https://climatefresk.org/.
26. IFRC. Climate center Hague: Netherlands Red Cross [Available from: https://www.climatecentre.org/.
27. Gilbert MA. edX E-learning course development: Packt Publishing Ltd; 2015.
28. UNESCO. Climate change education at COP29. Baku, Azerbaijan2024.
29. UNESCO. Shaping a resilient future: GreeningEducation at the core of COP29. 2024.
30. CAREC. International climate education platform launched in Uzbekistan: Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia; 2025 [Available from: https://centralasiaclimateportal.org/international-climate-education-platform-launched-in-uzbek/.
31. hub101.earth. hub101.earth is an online platform for capacity building and knowledge sharing in climate 2025 [Available from: https://hub101.earth/.
32. MEEPCC. Uzbekistan is implementing important initiatives in the field of climate change. 2024.
33. Leicester. Leicester delegation to bring environmental research insights to the heart of COP29. 2024.
34. Northwestern. Student Research Opportunity at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. 2024.
35. UNU. UNU at COP29: United Nation University; 2024 [Available from: https://unu.edu/cop29.
36. PresidencyTeam C. Initiatives for COP29 Baku, Azarbaijan2024 [Available from: https://cop29.az/en/presidency/initiatives-for-cop29.
37. ENBEL. Connecting Health & climate change [Available from: https://www.enbel-project.eu/.
38. Climatexhealth. Act on Climate – Our Lives Depend on It A shared narrative for people and organizations urging joint action on climate and health 2024 [Available from: https://www.climatexhealth.org/narrative, https://www.climatexhealth.org/about,
https://www.climatexhealth.org/small-grants.
39. Jain N. Climate X Health Challenge: A compendium of climate responsive solutions in public health. India: PATH; 2023. Available from: https://www.path.org/our-impact/media-center/join-the-climate-x-health-challenge/.
40. GCC. Climate x Health: Meet the innovators addressing the health impacts of climate change. 2024.
41. WHO. Country Commitments: Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH); 2024 [Available from: https://www.who.int/initiatives/alliance-for-transformative-action-on-climate-and-health/country-commitments, https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/call-for-consultant--alliance-on-transformative-action-on-climate-and-health-(atach).
42. ATACH. Healthy NDC Scorecard In: Organizaion(WHO) WH, editor.: THE GLOBAL CLIMATE & HEALTH ALLIANCE (ATACH); 2023
43. Xu Y, Ramanathan VJPotNAoS. Well below 2 C: Mitigation strategies for avoiding dangerous to catastrophic climate changes. 2017;114(39):10315-23.
44. ATACH. Healthy NDC Scorecard: As ‘Health COP’ Approaches, Analysis Shows Big Emitting Nations Doing Too Little to Protect Health from Climate Change: Alliance for Global Climate and Health (ATACH) 2023 [Available from: https://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/healthy-ndc-scorecard-as-health-cop-approaches-analysis-shows-big-emitting-nations-doing-too-little-to-protect-health-from-climate-change/.
45. UNIDO. Burundi country and economy profiles: Competitive Industrial Performance Index 2023. In: (UNIDO) UNIDO, editor. 2023.
46. statista. Burundi: Share of economic sectors in the gross domestic product (GDP) from 2012 to 2022 2024 [Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/451426/share-of-economic-sectors-in-the-gdp-in-burundi/#:~:text=In%202022%2C%20the%20share%20of,sector%20contributed%20about%2045.37%20percent.
47. IFRC. Global Climate Resilience Platform [Available from: https://www.ifrc.org/our-work/disasters-climate-and-crises/climate-smart-disaster-risk-reduction/climate-platform.
48. Duncan Clark, Houston R. Carbon Map: World Bank’s Apps for Climate competition; [Available from: https://www.carbonmap.org/.
49. Glantz MH, Pierce GJA. For the Record: Second Thoughts on Early Warning, Early Action (EWEA), EW4All, or EWEA4All? 2023;14(11):1631.
50. GeSI. GeSI at COP29: Transformative Solutions and Path Forward for Digital. In: Initiative GES, editor. 2025.
51. Mantri M, Sunder G, Kadam S, Abhyankar A. A perspective on digital health platform design and its implementation at national level. Front Digit Health. 2024;6:1260855.
52. Ansah EW, Amoadu M, Obeng P, Sarfo JO. Health systems response to climate change adaptation: a scoping review of global evidence. BMC Public Health. 2024;24(1):2015.
53. Mosadeghrad AM, Isfahani P, Eslambolchi L, Zahmatkesh M, Afshari M. Strategies to strengthen a climate-resilient health system: a scoping review. Globalization and Health. 2023;19(1):62.
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How to Cite
1.
Ostadtaghizadeh A, Fernandes E, Rezaei F. Strengthening COP Meetings through Cross-Sectoral Thematic Convergence and Highlighting Health in COPs. CHJ. 2025;1(1):14-20.
