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Climate Change and Urban Health

About the Program

The Yale Program on Climate Change and Urban Health within the Center on Climate Change and Health is a co-host to the Urban Pulse initiative, dedicated to putting health and equity at the heart of climate action. Urban Pulse is a transdisciplinary collaboration of the Resilient Cities Network and Yale University to identify urban climate and health priorities.

Urban Pulse was launched at COP28 in Dubai (December 2023) with the goal of generating timely and relevant knowledge as well as disseminating of results to inform the public, promote civic and institutional engagement, and support evidence-based programs and policies to build urban climate and health resilience.

One-half of the world’s population lives in cities, increasing to 70% by 2050. In low/middle-income countries where urbanization paces fastest, 85% live in cities now. Those in concentrated poverty and without access to health/social services are disproportionately vulnerable, resulting in profound inequities. Exacerbated in cities, climate has profound direct and indirect effects on health and mental health, such as prolonged heatwaves, severity of extreme weather events, and rapidly spreading infectious diseases such as dengue. Nearly 40 Sustainable Development Goal targets are relevant to urban health, including land planning, transportation, non-communicable diseases, and mental health. Cities must be on the frontline to promote health and climate justice. Articulating the health advantages of climate action increases public support and policymakers’ ambition for policy change.

Initially supported by the Hecht Faculty Network Award at the Yale Institute for Global Health, ongoing work receives support from The Rockefeller Foundation and NASA.

Vision

We envision an integrated, multi-sector approach to advance our collective understanding of the impacts of climate on health, empowering us to meet the demands of today’s interconnected world.

Resources

Meet the Team

  • Director

    Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health; Dean of Faculty, Yale-NUS College; Director, Program on Climate Change and Urban Health; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

    Jeannette R. Ickovics is the Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She served as Dean of Faculty at Yale-NUS College in Singapore from 2018-2021, responsible for faculty development and curriculum across the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. At the Yale School of Public Health, Dr. Ickovics was Founding Director of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Public Health (2002-2012) and Founding Director of CARE: Community Alliance for Research and Engagement as part of Yale's inaugural Clinical and Translational Science Award (2007-2017). She was also Deputy Director for the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS where she was Director of an NIH training program for pre- and post- doctoral fellows for 15 years (now in its 24th year). Dr. Ickovics’ research investigates the interplay of complex biomedical, behavioral, social and psychological factors that influence individual and community health. She uses this lens to examine challenges faced by those often marginalized by the health care system and by society. She has expertise running large, scientifically rigorous clinical trials in community settings. Her community-based research – funded with more than $40 million in grants from the NIH, CDC, and private foundations – is characterized by methodological rigor and cultural sensitivity. In addition to other grants, she has been Principal Investigator on two NIH-funded multi-site randomized controlled trials on an innovative model of group prenatal care, demonstrating >33% reduction in preterm birth and other positive health outcomes for mothers and babies. Based on these results, The United Health Foundation funded a dissemination study of group prenatal care, with an eye toward national scale-up. Dr. Ickovics also was Principal Investigator of a public-private evaluation with Merck for Mothers (evaluating the use of community health workers for pregnant women with chronic disease), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and an NIH-funded randomized controlled obesity prevention trial at 12 middle schools in collaboration with the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and the New Haven Public Schools. She is author of more than 225 peer-reviewed publications. Her newest work, funded by NASA, the Rockefeller Foundation, Yale Planetary Solutions, and the Hecht Faculty Network Award at the Yale Institute for Global Health, focuses on climate resilience, health, and equity. She is working in a close transdisciplinary collaboration with the Resilient Cities Network, representing 100 cities and 220 million residents globally, in low-middle and high-income countries. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Eden Project (United Kingdom, educational charity and social enterprise, nature-based solutions). Dr. Ickovics is recipient of national awards and recognition, including most recently the Martha May Elliot Award honoring extraordinary health services to mothers and children from the American Public Health Association (2023), the Strickland-Daniel Mentoring Award from the American Psychological Association (2018), and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. She is Chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association, and an inaugural member of their Climate Change Advisory Group.