Health and climate crisis: the urgency of an integrated agenda at COP 30

Abstract

The 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Belém do Pará, transcends the diplomatic and environmental sphere to take on urgent contours of global public health. The concept of One Health provides a robust theoretical and practical framework for understanding and addressing this crisis. The health dimension of the climate crisis requires that 30th Conference of the Parties debates go beyond the traditional boundaries of environmental diplomacy. The emergence of an intersectoral approach is vital: climate policies must directly interact with health, food security, basic sanitation, and social justice policies. The future of global health will depend on the collective capacity to recognize that protecting the environment is, above all, protecting life. Discussing the climate crisis as a public health issue is not a rhetorical choice, but an ethical, scientific, legal, and political imperative.

Submitted: 08/18/25| Approved: 08/18/25