The World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) has urged global leaders gathering at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, to place health professionals at the center of implementing the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP), the new global roadmap for climate resilient and sustainable health systems. The appeal comes as the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) opens in the Amazon region from November 10 to 21, 2025.
WHPA emphasized that urgent, coordinated action is needed to build climate smart, health professional led health systems capable of protecting both patients and those who care for them. The alliance represents over 41 million health care professionals in more than 130 countries through its member organizations comprising the world’s dentists, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and physicians.
Dr. Otmar Kloiber, Chair of WHPA and Secretary General of the World Medical Association (WMA), stated that strengthening, protecting, and meaningfully engaging health professionals must be central to every national implementation of the Belém Health Action Plan. He emphasized that a safe, well supported health workforce is fundamental to safeguarding both patient safety and the sustainability of health systems worldwide.
The alliance commended the leadership of the COP30 Presidency and the World Health Organization (WHO) in developing the Belém Health Action Plan, which will be adopted during COP30 Health Day on November 13. WHPA welcomed the plan’s strong focus on strengthening the health workforce as a cornerstone of global health resilience, describing this emphasis as essential to addressing climate related health challenges.
COP30 marks the first time a UN Climate Change Conference has been hosted in the Amazon region, a location symbolizing the frontline intersection of climate, biodiversity, development, and health. The conference seeks to spotlight climate resilience, equity, and social participation while mobilizing countries to join the Mutirão for Health and Climate, a collective effort to accelerate solutions safeguarding lives while advancing Paris Agreement goals.
The Belém Health Action Plan represents one of the key strategic frameworks of COP30, emphasizing health systems, adaptation, equity, climate justice, and social participation. Developed under the leadership of the Government of Brazil and WHO, the plan serves as a global roadmap designed to mobilize the international community toward building climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health systems. The plan will be accompanied by two supporting reports focusing on evidence and social participation.
Brazil’s Ministry of Health has structured the plan around three main pillars since last year. The first pillar focuses on surveillance and monitoring to strengthen health surveillance systems through more effective data integration. The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro successfully integrated climate and health data to make predictions, demonstrating how authorities can anticipate that temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius increase demand for health services while higher air pollution levels similarly affect service utilization.
The second pillar emphasizes evidence based policy strategies, addressing the current gap in health professional training regarding climate change impacts on health. The plan recognizes that training health professionals to deal with these impacts helps understand changes in disease patterns, such as the Oropouche virus previously concentrated in the Amazon region that spread across Brazil, and dengue, which caused the country’s largest epidemic with cases now appearing in previously unaffected countries including Uruguay and Italy.
The third pillar addresses innovation and production, acknowledging that health technology production has significant climate impact. The plan calls for investing in more research and seeking sustainable solutions for the environment, particularly regarding plastic production in healthcare settings. This component aims to reduce the health sector’s environmental footprint while maintaining quality care delivery.
WHPA encouraged WHO and the COP30 Presidency to formally engage health professionals and their representative bodies in the next stages of developing, implementing, and monitoring the Belém Health Action Plan. The alliance reiterated its readiness to support translating the plan into concrete national action, offering the expertise and networks of its member organizations spanning dental, nursing, pharmaceutical, physiotherapy, and medical professions.
The alliance urged all governments to invest in the health workforce, strengthen occupational safety, and integrate climate health considerations across all policies. This comprehensive approach ensures health systems are prepared for climate change realities while protecting the wellbeing of health workers who form the backbone of any effective health response. WHPA emphasized that investing in health professionals represents not a cost but a cornerstone of resilient, high quality healthcare systems.
Ethel Maciel, nurse and epidemiologist specializing in infectious diseases and COP30 Special Envoy for Health, noted that health was formally incorporated into climate negotiations only at COP28 in Dubai. Since then, Health Day has been established and observed on November 13, marking the growing recognition of health as central to climate action. The COP30 Presidency aims to make this the Implementation COP, focusing on translating commitments into concrete actions.
The draft Belém Health Action Plan underwent public consultation and refinement through multiple stages. Brazil’s Ministry of Health presented the draft at the 5th Global Conference on Climate and Health held in Brasília from July 29 to 31, 2025, inviting experts, government representatives, international organizations, and civil society to contribute. The Brazilian Ministry of Health and COP30 Presidency subsequently released an updated version during a high level side event at the UN General Assembly in September 2025.
The plan grounds itself in principles of climate justice and health equity, recognizing that climate change impacts are unequal and require targeted responses. Indigenous leaders including Ângela Kaxuyana of the Coordinating Office for Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon emphasized that it’s insufficient to merely mention effective participation of Indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, and women. Their knowledge must be integrated as a key component of strategic solutions.
Sandra Andrade of the National Coordinating Office for Black Rural Quilombola Communities noted that Quilombola populations are essential for preserving forests and all Brazilian biomes as guardians of biodiversity. She highlighted that over the past 40 years, Quilombola territories have preserved 97 percent of their native vegetation, yet 94 percent of Quilombos face land and water conflicts. She called for greater integration of Brazil’s Unified Health System in these territories.
COP30 will focus on efforts needed to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the presentation of new national action plans called Nationally Determined Contributions, and progress on finance pledges made at COP29. These discussions occur against the backdrop of increasing extreme weather events, changing disease patterns, and growing recognition that climate change represents a fundamental health emergency requiring coordinated international response.
Mariângela Simão, Secretary for Health and Environmental Surveillance at Brazil’s Ministry of Health, stated that Brazil is bringing the plan forward as a central element of the global climate agenda because health can provide solutions. She acknowledged the undeniable reality of facing a climate emergency that affects people’s health, positioning the Belém Health Action Plan as a practical framework for addressing these intersecting challenges.
WHO and partners will host the Health Pavilion in the Blue Zone for the fifth consecutive year, featuring two weeks of events and discussions designed to put health and equity at the heart of climate negotiations. The Pavilion will showcase evidence, partnerships, and innovative action for a healthier, more resilient future. Previous preparatory events included the Global Conference on Climate and Health in Brasília, which served as the second in person meeting of the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health.
The Belém Health Action Plan seeks endorsement from member states of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, civil society, academia, the private sector, and international organizations. During COP30 Health Day, Brazil intends to announce endorsements from Ministries of Health committing to advance the plan through national level initiatives leading up to the Global Stocktake, the mechanism for assessing collective progress toward Paris Agreement goals.
Among the innovative measures being considered are redefining hospital care and rest hours during periods of extreme heat and creating clinical protocols that adjust medication doses based on temperature variations. As epidemiologist Ethel Maciel explained, if heat waves become more frequent, services will have to change because maintaining the same schedule becomes risky for populations when going outside between noon and 4 PM poses health dangers.
WHPA’s intervention at COP30 reflects the alliance’s consistent advocacy for health workforce priorities across multiple international forums. The organization previously signed a memorandum of understanding with WHO in November 2022 to enhance joint collaboration on protecting and investing in the health workforce to provide safe, quality, and equitable care in all settings. That agreement brought together the five global organizations representing dentists, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, and physicians with WHO.
The alliance’s call for health professional leadership in climate action aligns with broader recognition that today’s public health problems cannot be solved by one country, organization, or profession alone. As previously stated by former WHPA Chair Enzo Bondioni, collaboration between stakeholders enables tackling interlinked global health challenges by taking joint action to protect and strengthen the health workforce while making progress toward universal health coverage.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
