Cities, children, and health: YCCCH at Climate Week NYC

During this year’s Climate Week NYC, the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH) engaged in three impactful events, contributing critical insights to the global conversation at the nexus of health and climate change. Each event highlighted the urgent need to address challenges including mitigation and resilience in the health care sector, climate change’s impact on global children’s health, and promoting urban health in the face of rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, and shifting disease patterns. Read on to discover more about these events, their key takeaways, and how they advance the conversation.

Cities on the frontline: saving lives through climate-informed health action

On September 26, the Rockefeller Foundation convened city leaders, climate and public health experts, and urban planners at Goals House to address the impact of climate change on urban health.

The event began with the release of the new report “Urban Pulse: Identifying Resilience Solutions at the Intersection of Climate, Health, and Equity.” Elizabeth Yee, executive vice president of programs of the Rockefeller Foundation, presented the report’s findings and recommendations. This report, a collaboration between the Yale School of Public Health and the Resilient Cities Network, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, is based on a survey of nearly 200 city leaders across 118 cities and 52 countries. It also includes eight in-depth interviews with stakeholders from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, highlighting their climate and health priorities, challenges, and solutions. Dr. Jeannette Ickovics, PhD, director of YCCCH’s Program on Climate Change and Urban Health, is the lead author of the report.

The event also featured a keynote address by Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, followed by a panel discussion with city leaders from Sierra Leone, South Africa, India, and the United States. The discussion focused on the challenges cities face from the growing impacts of climate change and underscored best practices and solutions to protect the health of their communities. A key solution discussed was the integration of health into cities' climate resilience plans, addressing a significant finding from the Urban Pulse report that less than half of the cities have a climate resilience plan, and only one in four of those plans include climate and health.

Climate change and children's health: a threat to progress

Also on September 26, YCCCH partnered with UNICEF to host a workshop on climate change and children’s health as part of the Yale @ Climate Week NYC summit at the Yale Club.

In his opening remarks Dr. Arinze Agu, MD, MPH ‘25, (Climate Change and Health concentration) described his passion for pursuing public health as a young physician witnessing how air pollution and climate change were affecting his patients.

Dr. Robert Dubrow, MD, PhD, co-faculty director of YCCCH, presented the center’s latest research illustrating children's unique vulnerabilities to the adverse health effects of the climate crisis, and their climate justice implications. Abheet Solomon, head of UNICEF’s Healthy Environments for Healthy Children program, shared findings and recommendations from their recent report, A threat to progress: Confronting the effects of climate change on child health and well-being.

Participants then broke out into groups to discuss solutions for protecting children from climate hazards such as extreme heat, air pollution, floods, and droughts. Key opportunities identified by participants included improved tools for data collection and dissemination (for mapping, forecasting, and evaluation); fostering “whole of community” efforts to build resilience and build political will for mitigation (engaging community health workers, schools, caregivers, and employers); inclusion of youth and people from low- and middle-income countries in Climate Week discussions; and investing in arts and mass media to engage wider audiences.

Health systems leading the charge in climate action

On September 27, YCCCH and The New York Academy of Medicine hosted a groundbreaking, day-long event focused on climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems. It was the first such discussion at Climate Week NYC, as highlighted by the Yale Daily News. The event convened health sector and business leaders, public health experts, researchers, and students to discuss the latest research and practice findings on sustainable health systems, featuring two keynote addresses and six dynamic panel discussions.

After opening remarks from the event co-chairs, Dr. Ann Kurth, PhD, MPH, MSN, president of The New York Academy of Medicine, and Dr. Jodi Sherman, MD, director of the YCCCH’s Program on Healthcare Environmental Sustainability, as well as Dr. María Neira, director of Environment, Climate Change, and Health at the World Health Organization, the forum began with a keynote address from Dr. Marina Romanello, PhD, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. Dr. Romanello provided a comprehensive overview of the latest research on the relationship between climate change and health from the Lancet Countdown, with a specific focus on the health care sector’s role and opportunities.

The first panel discussed strategies for decarbonizing and building resilience in the health care sector, highlighting best practices from the YSPH co-authored Urban Pulse report. The second panel focused on the role of health insurers in managing climate-related health risks, emphasizing the need for data gathering, innovative investments, and public-private partnerships. The third panel centered on empowering health workers to confront climate challenges, while the fourth brought together philanthropy and government funders who stressed the importance of collaboration to enhance impact. Innovative and actionable solutions for sustainable clinical care were presented in the fifth panel, such as the adoption of planetary health diets in hospitals and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across health care facilities and supply chains. The final panel tackled accountability and strategies to avoid greenwashing, including litigation instruments and greenhouse gas inventory management plans.

Finally, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, MBS, Group CEO of Amref Health Africa, closed out the event by delivering a powerful keynote speech on international climate justice concerns from a Global South perspective, spotlighting the human face of climate change.