The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH)
The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH) strives to realize the climate change and health ambition set at COP26 using the collective power of countries, partners and other stakeholders to drive this agenda forward at pace and scale; and promote the integration of climate change and health nexus into respective national, regional, and global plans.
Our work builds on the commitments made by 50 Ministries of Health at COP26, where they pledged to develop climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health systems. The ATACH is the continuation of this initiative aiming to turn these commitments into action.
Our objective is to support countries in making and delivering on these ambitious commitments for climate resilience and health sector decarbonization. We achieve this through a range of activities, including advocacy, technical support, knowledge sharing, monitoring, and access to financing.
Join us in our mission to promote a healthier and sustainable future for all.
Key facts
Key objectives
- Support Member States to develop health systems which are resilient to the impacts of climate change and are low carbon and sustainable, contributing to national net zero goals.
- Encourage Member States to make commitments on ‘climate resilient and sustainable’ health systems and to build on those commitments for increased ambition.
- Elevate the climate and health agenda in both climate and health spaces by identifying and advocating for innovative solutions to global constraints thereby achieving resilient and sustainable systems.
- Identify, disseminate, strengthen, and advocate for evidence and knowledge on best practices relating to emerging issues and the health argument for climate change to support implementation of the commitments and encourage global progress in addressing the climate and health nexux.
Functions
- Deliver an international shift on priority issues through the collective power of Member States and other stakeholders.
- Monitor country level progress against the commitments made.
- Develop quality assurance mechanisms designed ensure that assessments, plans, and implementation are of the quality required to deliver on commitments made.
- Finance. Identify financing needs, and support Member State access to finance, including climate finance, in a timely and sustainable way.
- Support knowledge sharing and coordinate access to technical assistance. This includes sharing of expertise, knowledge and experience on the assessment, planning, implementation, financing, and monitoring of commitments.
Climate resilient and low carbon health systems:
...are those capable of anticipating, responding to, coping with, recovering from, and adapting to climate-related shocks and stress, while minimizing GHG emissions and other negative environmental impacts to deliver quality care and protect the health and well-being of present and future generations.
The WHO Operational Framework for Climate Resilient and Low Carbon Health Systems (see Figure 1 below) outlines 10 components related to the six building blocks of the health system to systematically build resilience and reduce carbon across the health system.
The COP26 Health commitments are first priority actions for building climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems.
ATACH working groups
Now it’s time to turn the commitments into actions. The ATACH aims to support countries in this endeavour by providing a platform for coordination, knowledge, and best practice exchange, networks, access to support and link up to existing initiatives, tackling common challenges, and monitoring global progress.
Five working groups have been established as part of the ATACH with each focused on facilitating tools and resources for specific technical areas relevant to advancing the COP26 health commitments.