Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing

The Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing, drafted by the Global Climate and Health Alliance in December 2012, asserts that health should be central to climate action. It highlights that climate change impacts health through direct means, such as extreme weather and infectious diseases, and indirect means, such as migration and conflict, disproportionately affecting children, women, and poorer populations. The declaration argues that climate mitigation—specifically reducing fossil fuel consumption and shifting to low-carbon energy—provides significant health co-benefits, including improved air quality and increased physical activity. The signatories call for health impacts to be fully evaluated and costed in climate decisions, the cessation of global fossil fuel subsidies, increased funding for health programs in vulnerable countries, and the inclusion of the health sector in designing mitigation and adaptation strategies.

• Climate change threatens human health through both direct pathways, including extreme weather events, food and water insecurity, and infectious diseases, and indirect pathways, such as migration, economic instability, and conflict.
• The risks associated with climate change are distributed unevenly, with a particular impact on women, children, poorer individuals, and populations in developing nations.
• Climate mitigation efforts can generate substantial public health co-benefits; for example, reducing fossil fuel use improves air quality, while transitioning to active transport and better building insulation improves physical activity and protects against extreme temperatures.
• The declaration demands that health impacts and co-benefits be fully costed and reflected in all climate decisions, and that loss and damage assessments include impacts on health care infrastructure and community resilience.

APA

Global Climate and Health Alliance (2019). Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/who-we-are/about/doha-declaration/

Chicago

Global Climate and Health Alliance. Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing. 2019. https://climateandhealthalliance.org/who-we-are/about/doha-declaration/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Global Climate and Health Alliance |title=Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing |date=11 March 2019 |url=https://climateandhealthalliance.org/who-we-are/about/doha-declaration/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{globalclimateandhealthalliance2019doha, author = {{Global Climate and Health Alliance}}, title = {{Doha Declaration on Climate, Health and Wellbeing}}, publisher = {Global Climate and Health Alliance}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://climateandhealthalliance.org/who-we-are/about/doha-declaration/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }