21.11.2025 – Belem – COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago during a plenary meeting at the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Photo by Raimundo Pacco/COP30
A selection of media coverage mentioning the Global Climate and Health Alliance during COP30:
Earth.org: Reactions Pour in After Weak COP30 Agreement
Howard Catton, CEO, International Council of Nurses (GHCA member organization)
Nurses carry the memories of patients whose suffering is tied to fossil fuels. We see the child gasping for air, the family grieving after climate disasters, and Indigenous communities losing health, land, and safety. These harms are not abstract. They deepen inequities and push health systems beyond their limits. Nurses are the ones who sit beside the patient, witnessing their pain and knowing these harms are not random, but driven by human choices. They are preventable if leaders listen to those on the frontlines. We are calling for urgent investment in resilient health systems and a strong health workforce, and we are calling for a rapid and just phase out of fossil fuels to protect the health of people and the planet.
Emily Bancroft, Health Care Without Harm US (GHCA member organization)
The lesson from COP30 is clear: you cannot have healthy people without a healthy planet. COP30 highlighted real progress—from the launch of the Belém Health Action Plan to healthcare’s strengthened commitments to Race to Zero. Yet it also exposed the gaps we must confront: the political will to accelerate a just transition away from fossil fuels and inadequate financing to protect the most vulnerable. Without closing these gaps, people’s lives and the planet on which we depend remain at risk. The health community will continue to lead by example, driving the action, evidence, and accountability needed to move the world toward a climate-resilient, equitable future.
Climate Home News: COP30 PR firm found to be “uniquely reliant” on fossil fuel clients
In response to Climate Home’s article, the Global Climate and Health Alliance, a network of over 200 organisations, called on Brazil to reconsider its contract. It also urged Australia and Turkey, the countries vying to host next year’s COP, to commit to not hiring PR firms that also have fossil fuel clients. “Future host countries should take a clear stand that will avoid this kind of conflict of interest and prevent the influence of the fossil fuel industry on negotiations to deal with the problem that industry created,” the coalition’s executive director Jeni Miller said.
Deutsche Welle: How climate change is making us sick
“When someone experiences an extreme weather event such as a forest fire, hurricane, monsoon, typhoon or extreme flooding, it can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, said Jeni Miller, executive director from Global Climate and Health Alliance, a US non-governmental organization. For example, poor harvests due to droughts, water shortages, or a loss of livelihood can cause anxiety and lead directly or indirectly to mental health problems. This is exacerbated by lack of sleep due to excessively hot nights, according to the [Lancet Countdown] report.”
Context: At COP30, we must act to stop fossil fuels destroying our health – Shweta Narayan is Campaign Lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance
When delegates leave Belém, success will not be measured by the number of pages in the final declaration or the pledges made, but by the courage to act on what we already know: that fossil fuels are destroying health from cradle to grave. Anything less would be a betrayal of both science and humanity.
Health Policy Watch: Climate Change Is Here, And It’s Killing Millions
“The poorest countries in the world are already spending more on debt service than on healthcare, education, and infrastructure combined,” said Jess Beagley, policy lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “It’s clearer than ever that the level of finance agreed to in the new goal is insufficient to deal with the devastating health consequences of climate change,” she added. “Continuing to raise ambition is a matter of life and death.”
Health Policy Watch:Brazil Wins Limited Backing for COP30 Climate-Health Plan, But Nations Commit No Finance
“Brazil’s health minister Alexandre Padilha said the plan had received backing from more than 80 nations and institutions, though the vast majority comprises civil society organisations like the Global Climate and Health Alliance, global health actors including Medicines for Malaria Venture and Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, and UN agencies such as UNFPA, UNICEF and UNITAID.”
Health Policy Watch: Health Systems Are Unprepared for The Climate Crisis
“When COP30 delegates leave Belém, success will be measured by the courage governments have demonstrated to act on what is already known: that fossil fuels are destroying people’s health,” said Jeni Miller, health lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “To ignore these realities would be to betray both science and humanity.”
Health Policy Watch: World Falls Far Short of Methane Cut Targets Halfway to 2030 Deadline
“Reducing methane decreases the precursors of ground-level ozone, reducing cardiovascular and respiratory disease immediately,” said Courtney Howard, an emergency physician and chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “Cutting methane is a win-win for health and health systems now and into the future.”
Euronews: Fossil fuel phaseout becomes COP30’s biggest talking point. But, will it ever happen?
“Every year of delay means more asthma attacks, more cardiovascular emergencies, more cancers and more premature deaths – all of them preventable,” warns Dr Joe Vipond, Past President at the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). “Transitioning away from fossil fuels isn’t just good climate policy: it’s life-saving health policy. Every delay means more preventable illness and more avoidable deaths.”
The National Observer, Canada: The world is splitting between petro and electro states, and Canada risks being left in the dust
“We [Canada] were exceptionally invisible,” said Dr. Joe Vipond, who was at COP30 and is past president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and a board member of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “I don’t feel like we were actively hindering progress, but in no way were we seen as catalysts for change.
The Climate Watch, Bangladesh: Experts warn climate change now a major health threat as COP30 debates adaptation finance
“The launch of the Climate and Health Funders Coalition is an encouraging signal,” said Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance and moderator of the event. “We know that much more than that is needed, but it shows growing recognition that protecting health must be at the centre of climate adaptation.”
Devex: Devex Newswire: The loss and damage fund takes flight
But experts stress that success hinges on delivery, writes Cheena Kapoor for Devex. As Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, tells her: “The Belem Health Action Plan will only be successful if countries — all countries — have what they need to tailor the plan to their local circumstances, and to implement it.” For developing countries, she adds, that means adaptation finance and technical support “with financial support that does not create a debt burden.”
The Green Growth: COP 30 Belém: Climate Finance, Adaptation, and Just Transitions Explained
What if the key to global climate progress isn’t more promises, but real delivery? In this special episode of Policy on the Go, on Green Growth TV, Toni Ogunbanjo sits with Jessica Begley from the Global Climate and Health Alliance and Axel Eriksson from the UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory on Climate Change to break down COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, exploring what works, what doesn’t, and what’s at stake.
Pacific Media Network: COP30 leaves Pacific nations facing a future they cannot survive
Reacting to the COP30 outcome, Jeni Miller, the director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, says the delay will have real human costs.
“Pushing out the delivery date… means many more people will suffer, many more people will die,” she says in a statement.
Croakey (Australia): Wrapping – and rapping – health wins and losses at COP30
Jeni Miller, executive director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, described the results as follows: “While not a total loss, COP30 certainly cannot be counted as a strong win for people around the world who are looking to our leaders to take meaningful action that will protect us all from climate change.”
The Times of India: Adapation Finance Crucial to Strengthen Health in the Face of Climate Change
Shweta Narayan, Campaign Lead for Global Climate and Health Alliance said: “India stands at a critical inflection point. With the Government of India now signaling its support for the Belém Health Action Plan, the country has taken an important step toward putting people’s health at the centre of climate action. Our air-pollution crisis alone, where millions breathe toxic air every day, is a stark reminder of why this commitment matters. This is not an isolated episode but part of a worsening pattern of hazardous air quality across the Indo-Gangetic plain and far beyond.”
Down to Earth: COP30: Global health leaders demand life-saving world transition away from fossil fuels
“They highlighted new research from Cradle to Grave: The Health Toll of Fossil Fuels and the Imperative for a Just Transition, which documents the extensive health damage caused across the entire fossil fuel life cycle. Pregnant women exposed to fossil fuel pollution face higher risks of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and congenital abnormalities.”
The Conversation: The demands of young people went unfulfilled by the UN climate summit – mostly
Nova Tebbe, 28, a postdoctoral researcher from the Global Climate and Health Alliance and UNFCCC constituency member, called for the introduction of “indicators for adaptation” – the rules, metrics and standards needed for adaptation projects Tebbe demanded adaptation finance from developed to developing countries as per the Paris climate agreement. She emphasised that human health should be central to climate negotiations, and hoped for a just transition mechanism that moves from policy to implementation Tebbe also wanted the second global stocktake (a five-yearly assessment of the world’s progress toward the goals of the Paris agreement, due in 2028) to be more inclusive, with civil society input. She told me how the Belém conference’s positive atmosphere and push for quick decisions seemed unusual compared with other climate summits she had attended. However, the final outcomes of Cop30 did not offer reassurance on most of her hopes. A new just transition mechanism was adopted, but without any map, money or manual.
