Experts Urge WHO to Declare Climate a Health Emergency

Geneva, Switzerland

A growing coalition of international health and climate experts is urging the World Health Organization to formally declare climate change a global public health emergency, warning that rising temperatures, worsening pollution, and increasingly extreme weather events are already causing widespread harm to human life across the world.

The call comes ahead of the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, where public health leaders are expected to discuss the mounting medical consequences of climate-related disasters. An independent commission of experts convened through the World Health Organization’s European regional office has concluded that the climate crisis now meets the criteria for what the WHO classifies as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” the organization’s highest level of international health alert.

That designation has previously been reserved for emergencies such as COVID-19, Ebola, Zika, and mpox outbreaks. Experts behind the recommendation argue that climate change now presents a similarly urgent and borderless threat, one capable of overwhelming healthcare systems, destabilizing food supplies, and increasing mortality on a global scale.

The commission’s report paints a deeply concerning picture of the health risks already linked to climate change. Researchers say rising temperatures are contributing to deadly heatwaves, stronger storms, floods, worsening air pollution, and the spread of infectious diseases into regions where they were previously uncommon. Mosquito-borne illnesses such as dengue fever and chikungunya are expanding into new areas as warmer climates create more favorable conditions for transmission.

Health specialists also warned of growing mental health impacts connected to climate disasters, displacement, and environmental instability. According to the report, vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, low-income communities, and people living in densely populated urban areas face the greatest risks.

Professor Sir Andrew Haines, one of the commission’s scientific advisers, said the world is entering a period where climate-related illness and death could rise dramatically if emissions continue at current levels. Former Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who chaired the commission, described climate change as not only an environmental crisis but a direct threat to “humanity’s health and survival.”

The report sharply criticized continued government subsidies for fossil fuels, noting that pollution and climate-related health effects contribute to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths across Europe every year. Experts argued that governments are still investing heavily in industries linked to the very health problems they are attempting to manage through public healthcare systems.

While the World Health Organization has not yet issued an official emergency declaration, WHO regional leaders acknowledged that climate change is increasingly becoming one of the defining health challenges of the century.

For many scientists and doctors involved in the discussions, the message is no longer framed as a warning about the future. They say the health emergency linked to climate change has already begun, quietly unfolding in hospitals, communities, and disaster zones around the world.

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