COP30 in Belém: Putting Health at the Heart of Climate Action

At COP30, health took center stage in climate action, with new frameworks and funding to protect vulnerable populations and strengthen resilient systems.

Walking into the Blue Zone at COP30 in Belém, I was struck by the scale —over 50,000 delegates, from government officials to researchers to youth leaders and Indigenous representatives, moving through a maze of buzzing tents. The urgency of the climate crisis was palpable everywhere. Amidst this chaos, something remarkable was unfolding: for the first time, the world seemed to understand the relationship between climate and health.

A Historic Step: The Belém Health Action Plan

Brazil’s Ministry of Health, together with WHO and PAHO, launched the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP), the first international climate adaptation framework dedicated specifically to health. Following this, more than 35 global philanthropies announced the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, aligning with the BHAP to accelerate solutions for extreme heat, air pollution, and climate-sensitive infectious diseases while strengthening resilient health systems. These new commitments are the result of years of work.

Why This Matters

These initiatives mark a shift in the global climate-health agenda, highlighting the essential role of research, adaptation, and equity. BHAP outlines a roadmap for strengthening climate-resilient health systems by improving disease surveillance, integrating health into national climate commitments, building health workforce capacity, and prioritizing equity and climate justice for the most vulnerable populations (older adults, people living with chronic illness, and communities facing social marginalization). The Climate and Health Funders Coalition aims to catalyze scalable, evidence-based approaches focusing in on regions where risks are greatest, and its $300 million initial commitment (made by a group of funders including the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and Rockefeller Foundation) is tied to the BHAP, ensuring some level of actionability.

The Human Side of COP30

Experiencing COP30 firsthand, I observed delegates debate treaty language with painstaking precision. Hours are dedicated to debating wording, such as whether agreements should use “should” or “shall,” or how a single comma might alter meaning. While this struck me as beyond tedious at first, I understood that the fine points of treaty language can determine the strength of commitments, the enforcement of accountability, and the financing that will reach climate-vulnerable populations. These negotiations are proof of how global policy is tightly linked to population health, and how health professionals and researchers can advocate for policies that protect the most vulnerable.

Just outside the negotiation halls, pavilions hosted by countries, research institutes, UN agencies, and NGOs functioned as hubs for advocacy, innovation, and hopefully sparking cross-sector collaborations. The visibility of health across the pavilions was notable. Health ministers joined panels on air quality, heat exposure, water safety, mental health, and resilient health systems. Amidst the frenzy, Indigenous delegates, brought their lived realities of climate change into the global forum through language, traditional clothing, and storytelling, in ways that were difficult to overlook.

A Sense of Possibility

Leaving Belém, I felt a strong sense of possibility. COP30 offered not just recognition of the climate health connection but a concrete plan and coordinated resources to act on it. BHAP, aligned with philanthropic commitments, has the potential for true action. I know that every COP is important, but progress comes from what happens between them, and now is the time to maintain momentum.