Welcome to the Belém Health Action Library!
This living library showcases diverse and cross-cutting actions that health systems around the world are taking to adapt, build resilience, and protect communities in the face of climate change. It highlights real-world examples of innovation and impact - showcasing what works, what’s been learned, and how others can follow suit.
This collection was developed to complement the Belém Health Action Plan and the COP30 Special Report on Health and Climate Change. Cases featured in this library are tagged according to the exposures they address, how they relate to the Belém Health Action Plan, and their alignment with components of the WHO Operational framework for building climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems.
Have an intervention to share? Submit your initiative to atach@who.int - and contribute to the growing global evidence driving climate-resilient health systems.
This library was curated by the NUS Centre for Sustainable Medicine in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health of Brazil and ATACH.
Early warning systems for climate-sensitive health risks: experiences from Africa and Asia
DHIS2 for Climate & Health integrates climate and health data into national DHIS2 systems, enhancing forecasting, early warning, and data-driven adaptation. Through participatory design and local ownership, it strengthens capacity, harmonises data, and fosters global collaboration for scalable, sustainable, and open-source climate-health intelligence across Africa and Asia.
Heat-proofing health products: Adapting to a hotter planet
This Unitaid-led assesssment advances wider understanding around practical solutions that can protect health products from rising temperatures. This assessment is driven by the perspectives of stakeholders across the health system, illuminating key evidence gaps and promoting a more comprehensive understanding about the impact that heat, humidity and climate change can have on health products.
Popular Health Surveillance in Brazil
Popular Health Surveillance was developed in Brazil to bring together participatory strategies and strengthened health governance in the wake of climate emergencies. With emancipatory participation at the core of this initiative, local capacity, inclusivity and ownership over climate and health inteventions by local communities was enhanced, thus serving as a model for socially transformative climate and health action.
Risk Communication and Community Engagement to Address Cholera in Lusaka
The Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy was implemented in Lusaka, Zambia, to improve cholera outbreak response in the wake of El Niño-induced droughts. Strong coordination between governments and other orgnanisational partners amplified communication, monitoring, and strategic intervention in communities across linguistically diverse populations and high-risk areas.
Saving lives through a heat-health action plan in India
Ahmedabad, India developed the first city-level heat-health plan in South Asia in 2013, establishing a city-wide framework to mitigate heat-related illness and mortality. The plan's scientific basis, inter-agency coordination, and coordinated emergency response is complemented by heat literacy, a cooling facility and a clear alert system to help individuals take pre-emptive action.
SORMAS: A multi-country One Health approach to surveillance
Sureillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) is an initiative that promotes country-tailored digital health tools, recently fitted with an environmental surveillance module designed to integrate One Health approaches for climate-related infectious disease control. It is available across devices, with regulated permissions, easily sharable data, intuitively designed, increasing its usability across the health sector.
Sustainable and resilient health care waste management system in Maldives
Led by the Health Protection Agency of the Maldives, this national initiative aims to strengthen healthcare waste management by developing national policies, plans and guidelines to improve waste management. Coupled with training and awareness programmes, this initative works across stakeholders to foster systemic change and improve sustainable healthcare waste management practices across the nation.
New Zealand's Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP)
The Ministry of Health in New Zealand's three year HNAP offers transformative action spanning leadership and governance, social and environmental determinants of health, knowledge and risk assessment, healthcare service resilience and adaptation, and community whānau leadership. Equity is of central importance in New Zealand's HNAP, and is mobilised through pointed partnerships with vulnerable groups such as Māori, organisations, people with disabilities, young people and more.
Climate Adaptation Toolkit - the experience of Wales
Wales is enhancing its climate-ready workforce by adopting a systematic, sector-wide approach to climate adaptation planning through its Climate Adaptation Accelerator Programme. This initiative is comprised of online workshops, e-modules, and shared learning opportunities that are further enabled by collaboration and communication across the health sector. Resulting shared sense of purpose and buy-in across practitioners will improve continuity of care during extreme weather events across Wales.
Healthy North Coast’s community wellbeing and resilience program
The Community Wellbeing and Resilience Programme invests in location-based initiatives in Australia to foster social capital and enhance climate resilience. Through community capacity building, place-based solutions, shared learning opportunities, public engagement activities, and trust-cultivating partnerships, this programme supported communities across New South Wales North Coast in addressing the ramifications of severe weather.