Addressing the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn, and child health and building climate-resilient societies

Over 300 global health and climate leaders, decision-makers and advocates gathered virtually on the 27 February 2025 for the fourth dialogue of PMNCH’s Ready, Set, Implement Dialogue Series entitled Addressing the impacts of climate change on maternal, newborn and child health and building climate-resilient societies. The dialogue, organized in collaboration with the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), focused on the intersection of climate change and women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH), highlighting the unique impacts of climate change on pregnant and lactating women, newborns, children, and adolescents, and key interventions to ensure climate mitigation for and adaptation of mothers, their babies, and children.

The dialogue opened with a wakeup call:

“Progress on maternal, newborn and child health has stalled or, in some countries, reversed. But at the core of these numbers lies a critical and undeniable truth – that many of us in the health community have long ignored – the increasing threat of climate change… Global greenhouse gas emissions set a new record in 2023, with an increase of 1.3% compared to 2022 levels. This continuous increase in emissions and the consequent rapidly changing climate poses threats to communities in every country, who are faced with rising temperatures, deadly weather events, changes in suitability for infectious disease transmission, wildfires and droughts”.

— Rajat Khosla, Executive Director, PMNCH

Three keynote addresses followed, stressing the urgency to tackle the impacts of climate change on WCAH if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for maternal, newborn and child health (SDG 3.1 and 3.2).

“Investing in the well-being of children and adolescents is not an option but is actually an obligation that States have…climate change is also a human rights crisis and human rights are non-negotiable, including the right to a clean and sustainable environment”.

— Francisco Vera, Youth Climate Activist, Founder of Guardianes por la Vida

The speakers stressed the need to address these impacts through child-sensitive approaches, community sensitization, climate-resilient social protection services targeting women and children, early warning systems, capacity building for the health workforce, emergency response plans, multisectoral action and meaningful child and adolescent engagement.

“Let me urge everyone to consider the integration of climate change issues in health policies, specifically maternal, newborn and child health policies so that we can build climate-resilient societies. This can be achieved through multisectoral approaches”

— Honorable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Minister of Health, Malawi

It was also highlighted by Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General at WHO, that the 77th World Health Assembly resolution (WHA77) on accelerating progress on maternal, newborn and child mortality gives us a new impetus to accelerate action. The resolution acknowledges the barriers that climate-induced extreme weather events, air pollution and lack of clean water and sanitation pose to access to safe, quality, and affordable sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent healthcare services at both health systems and societal levels.

Looking at evidence on the impacts of climate change on WCAH, Dr Maria Neira, Director for Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Global Health and Development, Aga Khan University, shared key emerging trends and research gaps (see resources shared below). Panelists highlighted that extreme weather events, such as drought, cyclones, floods and heatwaves, and air pollution are increasing malnutrition among women and children, child marriage, intimate partner violence, preterm birth, drop-out from antenatal care, miscarriage and stillbirths, low birth weight, pregnancy complications, decrease in immunization rates, damage to healthcare facilities and school closures. Moreover, they flagged the lack of specific knowledge on cost-effective and affordable solutions that can be implemented specifically in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and climate and health data from LMICs including disaggregated data.

Outlining the solutions for this pressing issue, Alan Dangour from Wellcome Trust, Marionka Pohl from Save the Children, Zonibel Woods from the Asian Development Bank, and Giulia Gasparri from the PMNCH Secretariat, provided actionable recommendations to implement intersectoral policies and financing mechanisms. They discussed the importance of transnational and multisectoral partnerships to promote intersectoral action, synthesizing evidence to identify effective solutions to shape policymaking, increasing community awareness, implementing early warning systems and innovative cooling solutions, developing gender-responsive heat action plans, bridging the funding gap by working with climate funders and the private sector in order to expand climate and health financing through grants. Finally, it was stressed that it is important to meaningfully engage women, children and adolescents in finding and implementing these solutions.

Throughout the dialogue, panelists reaffirmed a clear call to action to address maternal, newborn and child health in climate policies and financing, and integrate climate change in maternal, newborn and child health policies and financing to ensure mothers, babies, children and future generations are not left behind and accelerate progress toward achieving SDG 3.1 and 3.2.

“To reduce mortality and bolster the health of women, children and adolescents, we must join forces with the climate and health community…We need to implement climate adaptation, transform our health systems to be resilient and low-carbon, this will be critical for ensuring maternal, newborn and child health. This is a no regret investment…We must not give up, at the contrary, now more than ever, we must join forces because this is incredibly relevant”.

— Dr Maria Neira, Director for Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO