WHO training module: Enhanced health decision-making using climate information

As awareness of climate-related health risks grows, countries are seeking to strengthen prevention, preparedness, and response. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall, more frequent extreme events, and shifts in humidity and air quality are altering the geography, seasonality, and intensity of climate-sensitive health risks, such as vector-borne disease outbreaks, heat-related illness, water-related diseases, and undernutrition.

Responding to these challenges requires a set of skills that has not traditionally been part of public health training. Health professionals are often not trained to interpret climate and weather information or are unaware of how climate information can be used to make better health decisions. At the same time, ministries of health are increasingly expected to integrate climate considerations into national strategies, including Vulnerability and Adaptation (V&A) assessments and Health National Adaptation Plans (HNAPs).

This course was developed to help address this gap. It provides the foundational knowledge needed for health professionals to engage effectively with meteorologists and climate scientists: speaking the same language, asking the right questions, co-producing tools such as early warning systems and risk assessments, ensuring those tools are methodologically sound, and translating climate information into actionable health decisions.

The course is structured as a progression: from basic climate and epidemiological literacy to the integration of climate and health data through modelling, to the use of climate information in operational tools such as climate-informed surveillance and early warning systems, and finally to the practical and institutional considerations that shape successful implementation.

The course is intended for Ministry of Health staff and public health professionals working in epidemiology, disease surveillance, disease and vector prevention and control, environmental health, and related fields, as well as professionals working in the climate and health field, including researchers and students. It assumes no prior background in climate science. Together with the wider learning package, this course supports the goals of WHO's work on supporting countries in building climate-resilient, low-carbon, sustainable health systems and contributes to building a workforce equipped to use climate information in the service of better health outcomes.

This training module forms part of a larger climate change and health training programme. The training package is primarily aimed at training facilitators with a set of materials and guidance to conduct a face-to-face (or live virtual) training. The training content provides a comprehensive introduction to the interlinkages between climate change and health and WHO tools, frameworks, and approaches. 

The training package for this module includes: Presentation slides for each module with presenter notes. Please email healthclimate@who.int to request PowerPoint versions of the presentations. 

 

The development of the technical content of this module was coordinated by Nicholas Ogden (Public Health Agency of Canada), Valerie Hongoh (Public Health Agency of Canada), Elena Villalobos Prats (WHO) and Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum (WHO).

The technical content of the module has been developed by:

• Part 1: Hyun Kim (WHO), Joy Shumake-Guillemot (WMO/WHO Joint Office), Juli Trtanj (NOAA) and Hunter Jones (NOAA)
• Part 2: Sadie Ryan (University of Florida), Joacim Rocklöv (Umeå University, University of Heidelberg), Nick Odgen (Public Health Agency of Canada), Felipe J Colón-González, Simon Hales
• Part 3: Jan Semenza (Umeå University), Catherine A. Lippi and Sadie Ryan (University of Florida), Joacim Rocklöv (Umeå University, University of Heidelberg), Yoonhee Kim (University of Tokyo) and Ho Kim (Seoul National University)
• Part 4: Hyun Kim (WHO), Rachel Lowe (LSHTM), Lawrence Kazembe
• Part 5: Laith Hussain-Alkhateeb (University of Gothenburg), Hyun Kim (WHO), Avriel Díaz and Anna Stewart-Ibarra (Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research)

WHO is indebted to experts who reviewed and provided insightful comments on drafts during the planning and development stages, including Jan Semenza (Umeå University), who reviewed all parts to ensure consistency of approach across the module.

The content was reviewed and refined by Yiqi Pan and Eric Bump (WHO) for audience fit, balancing technical depth with learner comprehension throughout the module.