COP30 records first-ever direct funds for climate-health

This is the first time that a coalition of global health philanthropies is investing this amount directly in climate-health and the first formation of a joint fund for climate-health. The partners include the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Wellcome and more.

The partners will agree on annual contributions, but the focus for the first $300 million will be to accelerate solutions, innovations, policies and research on extreme heat, air pollution and climate-sensitive infectious diseases in Africa and other continents.  

The Climate and Health Funders Coalition, formed at COP30, is a first-of-its-kind, large-scale coordinated philanthropic initiative for climate-health solutions. It unites funders at various levels to strengthen health systems and save lives. Members include Bloomberg Philanthropies, Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Philanthropy Asia Alliance, Wellcome Trust and partners such as the Khemka Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, working collaboratively to address urgent climate-related health challenges.

The Coalition prioritises accelerating solutions, innovations, policies and research on extreme heat, air pollution and climate-sensitive infectious diseases. It also focuses on generating critical climate and health data to guide decision-makers in building resilient health systems. The Coalition aims to protect communities’ lives and livelihoods against the growing health impacts of climate change.

The $300 million investment in climate and health has also been timed to provide support for the implementation of the Belém Health Action Plan. The plan focuses on three things: building strong health surveillance, implementing proven solutions and capacity building and investing in research and technology. 

“Climate change is the gravest health threat of our time and no single organisation, community or country can tackle it alone,” said Naveen Rao, Senior Vice President of Health at The Rockefeller Foundation. Antha Williams, who leads the Environment Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, added that protecting the environment also protects people’s health and livelihoods.

The past ten years have been the warmest on record and temperatures are expected to remain at or near record levels in the next five years. Rising temperatures are leading to deadly heatwaves, increased air pollution, worsening nutrition, threats to maternal and newborn health, and the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue. Extreme weather events are also increasingly disrupting food and water supplies and straining health systems, especially in vulnerable regions. 

The 2025 Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate Change, released in October, revealed worrying trends. Heat-related deaths have surged 23% since the 1990s, now reaching 546,000 annually. In 2024, a record 154,000 deaths were linked to air pollution from wildfire smoke. Meanwhile, the global transmission potential of dengue has risen by up to 49% since the 1950s.

The fund’s early priorities like air pollution and infectious diseases align with the most urgent climate-linked health burdens in Africa. 

Less than 0.5% of multilateral climate finance has been directed toward health sector adaptation since 2004. 

This shows a gap in funding, despite growing recognition of the severe health impacts of climate change.