Announcing the Belém Health Action Library

Photo credit: Albert Oliveira

Introducing the Belém Health Action Library

The Belém Health Action Library is a living repository containing health system adaptation actions from across the globe. It was collaboratively developed by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Centre for Sustainable Medicine, Ministry of Health Brazil, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) to complement the release of the Belém Health Action Plan, and the COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change in Belém, Brazil this November 2025. 

By focusing on practical actions, the library upholds the sentiment championed by the Belém Health Action Plan and the Ministry of Health Brazil: the time to act is now. With contributions from diverse regions, implementation contexts, stakeholders such as governments, communities, academic and research institutions, international organisations, and more, the library holds a story for everyone. 

The Belém Health Action Library in Context

This year at COP30 in Belém, the discussion around climate change and health system resilience is anchored in the newly released Belém Health Action Plan (The Plan). Situated under Pillar 5 of the COP30 Action Agenda, Objective 16: Promoting resilient health systems, The Plan sets forth a roadmap of actions that can be taken by all corners of the health system, and beyond. The Plan’s release is bolstered by two sister reports: COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change: Delivering the Belém Health Action Plan and Social Participation, Climate and Health: A Special Report to Support Implementation of the Belém Health Action.

The Belém Health Action Library was developed to complement the COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change, designed to address the Action Lines named in the Belém Health Action Plan. This COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change weaves the existing evidence on health system adaptation around the Belém Health Action Plan’s core structure. The report offers these discussions a focused look into the possibilities that health system adaptation holds, and the lessons that future action can use to move forward with greater confidence, and greater impact.

Key messages from the COP30 Special Report 

• Flexibility is the foundation of resilience: Long-term action is pivotal, and actions today must avoid path-dependencies, leaning into flexible design to strengthen long-term resilience. 
• Now more than ever, we have the evidence to act: Translating planning to action is contingent on specialised institutional architecture such as dedicated Climate and Health Units within ministries, cross-government coordination mechanisms, and formalised accountability measures. 
• There can be no climate resilience without health equity: Adaptation strategies will fail unless they address the root cause of health inequity and build equitable practice across any and all actions—these can range from augmenting social protection programmes to priortising participatory planning for any policy, intervention, and service delivery.
• Effective adaptation requires investment in intervention evaluation: Institutions must bolster their analytical capacity to help track progress and inform future work. This can be done through establishing common taxonomies, assessment standards, and focusing on local contexts and scalability.
• A step-change in resource mobilisation is needed: The amount of financing required to promote health sector adaptation will increase with time. While investments in health sector adaptation is on the rise, delivering the Belém Health Action Plan will require a significant increase in funding.

• Urgent and sustained mitigation across all sectors is critical: Adaptation alone has physical, financial and technological limits, meaning it cannot holistically address climate change’s impact on health. This underscores the links between the Belém Health Action Plan and the Paris Agreement, and the critical need for rapid decarbonisation across all sectors of the economy.

While the report offers insights based on today’s evidence, The Belém Health Action Library will live on to expand and reflect the efforts undertaken by the global climate and health community beyond COP30.