Climate Action and Community Health Program Integration: Empowering Local Actors for Health Security and Community Resilience

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the greatest public health challenges. COP30 UN Climate Change Conference, currently taking place from November 10 to 21, 2025, in Belém, Brazil, underscores the urgent need to integrate climate action into health systems to effectively address the escalating health challenges of the 21st century. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and shifting disease dynamics are undermining global health systems, with disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations (WHO, 2021). Climate change is a health emergency multiplier that worsens outbreaks, food insecurity, migration, and conflict (Watts et al., 2019).  Extreme heat has intensified, resulting in a 70% increase in heat-related deaths among adults aged 65 and older over the last two decades (Romanello et al., 2024). Increased climate-related emergencies—from heatwaves to floods—damage infrastructure and overwhelm health systems that are already under-resourced (WHO, 2024). Inequity amplified, vulnerable communities, including children, seniors, and those with pre-existing conditions, bear the disproportionate burden of health impacts (IPCC, 2022). For instance, in Canada, record-breaking wildfires, floods, and heatwaves in recent years have demonstrated how climate change disrupts health, particularly for Indigenous communities, older adults, and those in remote or underserved areas (Berry et al., 2019; Health Canada, 2022).

A growing body of evidence shows that community-based actors, particularly Community Health Workers (CHWs), are critical to ensuring resilience and equity in responding to climate-related health emergencies (IFRC, 2020). Yet they remain underutilized in disaster risk management (DRM) and climate adaptation frameworks.

The case for CHWs in climate-health resilience: CHWs are trusted members of the community who operate at the interface between communities and health systems. Evidence from the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) shows that CHWs are often the first responders in crises, providing surveillance, health education, and referral during epidemics, floods, and droughts in humanitarian settings and low health resource settings (IFRC, 2020; Canadian Red Cross, 2023). The Canadian Public Health Association (2021) emphasizes that strengthening local health capacity, including through CHWs, is vital for adaptation to climate risks and building community resilience. Similarly, Health Canada’s climate change and health strategy calls for embedding community-level actors into resilience planning (Health Canada, 2022).

Despite these insights, programs engaging CHWs remain underfunded and undervalued, particularly in the context of climate-induced public health crises. Many face precarious conditions, limited training, and exclusion from national policy frameworks. Without institutional recognition and sustained investment, their potential to strengthen climate resilience will remain untapped.

Policy pathways for integration

To address this gap, three policy actions are urgently required:

1. Institutional integration: National climate and health policies should formally embed CHWs into the disaster risk management framework cycle—preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience. This requires redefining their roles from volunteers to essential health system actors (IFRC, 2020).
2. Sustained investment and stakeholder engagement: Evidence shows that investing in CHW training, protective equipment, and fair compensation yields high returns in health outcomes and system resilience (CRC, 2023). Dedicated financing mechanisms for climate-health adaptation must prioritize CHW-led interventions.
3. Evidence and accountability: Research institutions and global partners should expand monitoring and evaluation of CHW contributions to resilience. This includes tracking their role in reducing morbidity and mortality during climate-induced emergencies and Climate change health impact monitoring. Climate change health impact monitoring involves using tools like vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&As) and health impact assessments (HIAs) to identify how climate change affects health and builds resilient health systems. These processes establish baseline data and track trends in climate-sensitive diseases and health outcomes, such as heat-related illnesses, food-borne diseases, and the effects of extreme weather events, to inform public health strategies and adaptation planning. 

Conclusion

COP30 UN Climate Change Conference calls for integrating climate action into health systems to tackle 21st-century health challenges. Climate change is accelerating the frequency and intensity of health emergencies, threatening both equity and system sustainability. Community Health Workers, with their unique position at the frontline of public health, offer a scalable and cost-effective pathway to resilience. The evidence from IFRC and Canadian institutions underscores the urgency of embedding CHWs into disaster management frameworks, investing in their capacity, and elevating their role in policymaking.

Building climate-resilient health systems requires moving beyond top-down biomedical responses toward community-driven, adaptive strategies. By empowering CHWs, Canada and its global partners, including IFRC can ensure that resilience begins where it matters most—in the communities facing the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Keywords:  Climate-Resilient Community Health; Empowering Local Actors; Public Health Emergencies 

References

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Health Canada. (2022). Health of Canadians in a changing climate: Advancing our knowledge for action. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/climate-change-health.html

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. (2020). Climate change and health: Position paper. IFRC. https://www.ifrc.org

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/

Romanello, M., et al. (2024). The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: The imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms. The Lancet, 404(10411), 1837–1892. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01864-9

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World Health Organization. (2021). Climate change and health. WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health