The Lancet Global Health: Adapting global health aid in the face of climate change
Vin Gupta of the Harvard Global Health Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Alexandre Mason-Sharma of the Boston University School of Medicine; Stephanie N. Caty of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Vanessa Kerry of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital

“…The complex interaction between climate change, health system burdens, and poor health outcomes, and their subsequent impact on politics, security, and society can be captured within the concept of a so-called climate-health-security nexus. Many of the world’s poorest and most politically fragile nations lie at the center of this nexus. … Proactive acknowledgment of this climate-health-security nexus is an opportunity and necessity for the global health community, particularly given upcoming inflection points such as the inauguration of the new U.S. administration in January 2017. In the wake of the Paris and Kigali Climate Accords, 2017 will be a crucial moment. Developed economies should prioritize supporting global efforts to adapt and strengthen national health systems to better contend with climate-related threats. … There is a clear strategic and public health imperative to support struggling national health systems in the interest of global stability. Climate change represents an emerging threat to public health and security worldwide. Focused investment in the health systems of climate-vulnerable states now to offset the impending risks of future climate stresses represents a far-sighted, cost-effective, and preventive approach to global health and political stability in the developing world that the next U.S. administration and all developed economies should urgently adopt” (February 2017).