By Professor Mike Tipton, Chair of the Global Climate and Health Summit 2025
Professor of Human and Applied Physiology, University of Portsmouth
The Global Climate and Health Summit 2025 is fast approaching, at a pivotal moment for climate and health action. We need to move faster to protect people from escalating climate risks and put health at the heart of climate policy. And we must be honest about the scale of this challenge.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains the priority. The science is clear: there are hard physiological limits to what the human body can withstand. Without urgent, deep mitigation, climate change will breach these limits more often – leading to more deaths, more suffering, and greater strain on already stretched systems.
But mitigation alone is not enough. Climate change is already harming health. Extreme heat, air pollution, undernutrition and infectious diseases are putting growing pressure on health systems and exposing weaknesses in our social and economic resilience. We need to transform our systems – healthcare, housing, food, urban design – so they protect people now and in the future.
This Summit is built around that dual imperative: to reduce emissions and to build a climate-resilient, low-carbon society. It will bring together world-leading scientists, policymakers, health professionals, funders and civil society to chart the way forward together.
Starting from the human body
This is not just another climate and health meeting. What makes it different is its focus on the science of the human body.
It asks: what does climate change do to the body, and what must we do to protect it?
Climate change affects us in many ways – altering food systems, worsening air quality, driving infectious diseases, and making extreme heat more frequent and intense. Yet too often, strategies overlook a critical truth: the human body has limits. There is only so much heat, pollution, hunger and stress we can endure before health is compromised and lives are lost.
Physiology doesn’t just tell us where those limits are – it guides how to redesign systems to reduce risk. That is transformational adaptation: not simply coping with climate impacts, but fundamentally reshaping environments, institutions and responses to protect health in a changing world.
Strengthening physiological resilience – the body’s capacity to withstand, adapt to and recover from climate-related stressors – is essential not only for health, but also for economic stability, productivity, public confidence and national security.
Just as no one would build a bridge without consulting an engineer, we cannot design effective climate policies without physiologists. Their expertise shows where risks become critical and shapes interventions that build resilience to future climate shocks.
Why now?
The urgency has never been greater. From more frequent deadly heatwaves to worsening urban air quality and climate-driven food insecurity, our systems – and our bodies – are being tested more often and more severely.
Yet policies are still developed in silos. Mitigation and adaptation remain disconnected. Health is too often an afterthought. And science is underused. Time and again, action comes only after people are suffering.
The Global Climate & Health Summit is designed to start change this state of affairs. To shift from reacting to crises, to building a proactive, joined-up roadmap centred on the science of how the human body responds to climate stress – the foundation for protecting health, informing policy, and designing systems that keep people safe. It also reminds us of the boundaries of human adaptation, reinforcing the need for urgent, deep emissions cuts.
What to expect
Across two days, the Summit combines high-level plenary sessions with innovative, hands-on workshops. These workshops are core to the programme, designed to foster practical thinking and spark new collaborations. Together we will tackle real-world challenges, explore system-level solutions, and design pathways from today’s risks to tomorrow’s resilience.
The Strategic Pillars are simple but powerful:
- Protect lives – understand physiological thresholds and act now to reduce exposures and protect health. Make the case for mitigation and ensure systems can cope.
- Transform resilience – identify the shifts needed in urban design, health systems, food, work and housing to build long-term resilience and equity.
- Thrive together – reimagine what a healthy, low-carbon, climate-resilient society looks like, and how to get there through innovation, investment and collaboration.
We ask everyone attending the Summit to come not as delegates, but as participants. Roll up your sleeves and contribute. We have much to do in two days.
Day 1 opens with the UK Climate Change Minister, followed by plenary speakers and three strands focused on heat, air pollution and nutrition. Day 2 offers cross-cutting workshops and plenaries, with time to make new connections and, together, tackle key questions from Day 1 and determine the way ahead.
I know demands on your time are great. But this is an opportunity to leave distractions at the door and fully immerse yourself in thought and discussion. Your presence and contributions are vital to making the Summit a success. There will be time and space for questions, debate, breakout groups and networking. We want people to connect, challenge and co-create solutions.
I hope you will take full advantage of this opportunity to build your networks, think in new ways, and help shape action. You will hear from senior figures across international organisations, national governments, research institutions and civil society. You will leave with a clearer sense of how health and physiology can unlock more effective climate responses – and how we can help build a safer, fairer, more resilient future.