Professor Heidi de Wet attended the Global Climate and Health Summit (Global Climate and Health Summit) held in London 16-17 July 2025, as a representative of the Physiological Society’s Policy committee.
Professor de Wet reports: This Summit was designed to be interactive, inclusive, and action-focused—bringing together not just academic expertise, but also lived experience, diverse perspectives, and multidisciplinary voices from across the Global North and South. The aim was to catalyse collective action at the intersection of climate, health, and physiology. The Summit brought together an extraordinary mix of researchers, policymakers, funders, economists, and changemakers, all sharing insights and ideas that reinforce the need for collaborative, context-specific responses that place human physiology and resilience at the heart of climate and health solutions.
There were three thematic areas—air pollution, sustainable nutrition, and heat—and what stood out most was just how deeply interconnected these challenges are. Not only is each issue being intensified by climate change, but together they create compounding impacts on health, equity, and resilience.
Some of the data shared was sobering:
- Air pollution causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths annually
- 99% of the global population breathes air considered unsafe by the WHO
- Heat-related mortality in older adults has increased by 85% in the past two decades
- In the UK, poor diets are estimated to cost £268 billion annually across health, care, and indirect services
We were also honoured to welcome Sir Jeremy Farrar, in his new role as Assistant Director-General, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Control at the World Health Organization (WHO), as a keynote speaker. His presence and willingness to speak at the event underscored the WHO’s recognition of climate change and health as a global public health emergency. His remarks were a powerful reminder of the critical role of physiology—and physiologists—in advancing both basic and translational research to support climate solutions. He reinforced the idea that discovery science rooted in human physiology is essential to designing interventions that are fit for purpose across diverse systems and communities.
Other notable speakers included the Minister of Health and Childcare from Zimbabwe, Hon Dr Douglas Mombeshora, who was an instrumental figure in the drafting of the Harare Declaration on Climate and Health in Africa in 2024.This declaration outlines six key priorities, which together represent the most pressing issues at the intersection between climate change and health in Africa. It was a real honour to meet Dr Mombeshora in person and to talk about the central role that physiological and medical data play in the policy making processes of governments.
One of the most impactful elements of Day 2 was the success of the workshops, which provided participants with a meaningful platform to explore real-world challenges and co-create solutions. These sessions encouraged rich, cross-disciplinary engagement, allowing participants to contribute, reflect, and stress-test ideas in a truly collaborative environment
The summit really highlighted the need for collaborative, and cross-sector dialogue on one of the most critical challenges of our time: climate change and health. I encourage all of our early career scientist to engage with these very important issues through your chosen academic society, and to become a member of the Physiological Society if you are interested in the place of human Physiology in climate and health. You can also join the Physiological Society’s Climate and Physiological Resilience Network to keep informed with the latest global and sector updates and for opportunities to collaborate with other like-minded individuals.
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