Informing people about the health risks linked to climate change is twice as likely to spur public support for government-led climate action than messages focused on economic or environmental impacts, an international study has found.
Based on a survey of around 30,000 respondents in Brazil, India, Japan and South Africa carried out in late 2025, the report published this month by the Climate Opinion Research Exchange (CORE) and the Wellcome Trust reveals strong public support for climate action.
Over 80% of respondents said they are concerned about the impacts from climate change, the survey shows. A majority also back government measures to prevent public health impacts associated with the climate crisis.
“Humanitarian emergencies” are already increasing around the world due to human-caused rising temperatures, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than a third of the global population is exposed to climate threats like wildfires, extreme heatwaves, and tropical storms and floods, it says. These threats are amplified by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Dustin Gilbreath, a researcher at CORE and one of the study’s lead authors, said that communicating these risks to the general public can be an effective way to inspire climate action, given that health is a basic concern for everyone across the political spectrum.
“If you suddenly find out that climate change is hurting your health and your children’s health, more people are rightfully more open to that argument,” he said. “At the end of the day, we all care about our health, regardless of our political inclinations.”
At COP28 in Dubai, more than 150 countries issued a declaration “expressing grave concern” over climate-fuelled health impacts, and pledged to strengthen policies that can cut carbon emissions and benefit people’s health in the process – for example by reducing air pollution from cars or factories.
More than 80 nations also endorsed a plan to improve the health sector’s resilience to climate impacts at the COP30 summit in Belém last year. The initiative received $300 million in philanthropic backing to help governments identify health risks, improve monitoring of climate threats, and strengthen emergency responses to extreme weather events, among other measures.
Despite these pledges, health has not been at the top of the agenda at key meetings like the recent conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia. The Global Climate and Health Alliance, which represents 250 health organisations, said leaders in Santa Marta “did not address the importance of protecting people’s health”.
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Health priorities vary by country
To gain insights into people’s attitudes towards climate change, researchers tested 16 different messages with respondents in a survey-based randomised trial, comparing their reactions to messages on health-related issues like extreme heat or infectious diseases, and non-health issues related to jobs, the cost of living or nature. They also compared the participants’ reactions to a control group in each country who were not shown any messages.
While a majority were concerned about the health impacts from climate change, the types of effects that caused the strongest reaction varied depending on the country.
In South Africa, for example, public opinion resonated very strongly with messages related to children’s health. Messages linked to food and water insecurity also chimed well with South Africans, who recognised widely that climate change is a threat to people’s health.
The study’s authors say that context is key to understanding the effectiveness of messaging. South Africa, for example, has a young population with a median age of 28 years – compared to Europe’s 45 years – and has faced severe water shortages in cities like Cape Town, which was close to a “Day Zero” event after a major drought between 2016 and 2018. This term refers to the threat of municipal services running out of water.
Brazilians, on the other hand, reacted strongly to messages related to mental health impacts, which performed better than other messages by a wide margin. These types of impacts include, for example, severe anxiety or stress caused by losses after a flood or hurricane. In total, 93% of Brazilians said they are somewhat, or very concerned about, climate change.
Neha Dewan, senior advisor at the Wellcome Trust, a health-focused charitable foundation, said this finding was “counter-intuitive”, given that mental health is often seen as less of a priority. “This really helps us see what’s unexpected and find newer ways of reaching different audiences,” she added.
In Japan, extreme heat was the top-performing message, while in India it was air pollution and access to healthcare. Dewan said the India results confirm what people already discuss informally. “Every time I’m back home seeing family in India, everybody talks about air pollution. It’s the living, breathing reality.”
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Commission urges government action
Dewan said she hoped the findings “go beyond journals” and instead can “actually end up in society”, with the goal of helping “empower policy conversations”. Respondents across countries firmly supported government action to prevent or protect them from the health impacts of a warming climate.
In Brazil and South Africa, emissions-cutting measures such as building solar capacity to produce clean energy had more than 90% support, while in India and Japan respondents strongly backed adaptation measures like investments in allowing air-conditioned public buildings to be used during heatwaves.
Ahead of the May 18-22 World Health Assembly, the WHO’s highest decision-making body, experts highlighted the urgency of implementing such steps. The Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health, composed of former global leaders and chaired by former Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, called on governments “to take forward climate action that delivers benefits for human health”.
The commission issued a 17-point plan to address health impacts from the climate crisis, which includes declaring climate change a “global health emergency” and bringing it to the agenda of national security councils, as well as scaling up “climate-health investment”.
“The climate crisis is a threat to our safety and security, social cohesion, human rights and health,” Jakobsdóttir said in a statement. “Climate action is not merely a necessity. It is a high-return investment for a more just and resilient society.”
The Wellcome Trust’s Dewan said the survey provides data-backed insights showing policymakers that the public supports stronger action on climate change. “It’s beyond anecdotal now. Here’s the evidence telling us that constituents really care about these issues,” she said.
Fresh approach to climate dialogue
The findings of the study suggest that a focus on health could become an effective way for policymakers and activists to draw in new audiences and inspire action on climate change, the authors of the report said.
“The cost-of-living message or the jobs and economy messages have been used over and over again. People have been saying this for a good decade. Probably the people that are convinced by this already would’ve said they’re concerned about climate change,” said Gilbreath of CORE.
He added that the health angle is probably a newer approach for some audiences, but the hypothesis based on the survey findings would need to be tested with further research. He also noted that economic messages still serve a purpose in some contexts and should not be abandoned.
Dewan said health messaging could become a “missing piece” in climate communications. “Health is personal, proximal, relevant and – politically speaking – it’s depolarising,” she said.
“It gives us an inroad to talk about climate differently in a way that feels very relevant,” she explained. “It’s about figuring out what’s the next insight to unpack and make these communications and engagements even stronger and relevant.”
The post Health risks from climate change spur stronger public support for action, research finds appeared first on Climate Home News.
Health risks from climate change spur stronger public support for action, research finds
A new World Meteorological Organization report estimated 13,000 annual heat-related deaths across 17 countries in the region.
If the 2025 climate year in Latin America and the Caribbean showed anything, it was that floodwaters can’t erase long-term drought, that temperatures will continue to soar past livable limits and that once-unprecedented storms are part of the region’s new climate reality.
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Many right-leaning figures have tried to push the idea that the UK is an outlier on net-zero.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed that other countries are “not following us” in aiming to cut emissions to net-zero, while GB News owner Paul Marshall said in March that the UK is “pursuing a path of unilateral economic disarmament”.
Both are among those on the right of UK politics who have falsely claimed that the UK’s net-zero target is “unilateral” and that this is a reason why the goal should be abandoned.
However, these claims ignore that 140 of the world’s 198 countries (71%) have net-zero targets.
In fact, Iran and the US are the only two of the world’s top 20 carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters that lack a net-zero target, as shown in the map below.
If the UK were to scrap its net-zero target, as called for by both the opposition Conservatives and hard-right Reform UK, this is the group of major emitters it would be joining.
The latest assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost authority on climate science, said the only way to stop global warming was to reach net-zero CO2 emissions.
The UK was the first major economy to set a net-zero target in 2019.
Since then, almost all of the world’s major emitters have followed suit, with China announcing a net-zero target in 2020 and India, Saudi Arabia and Russia launching goals in 2021.
Around 74% of global emissions are now covered by some kind of national net-zero target, according to data from the Net Zero Tracker, a consortium tracking net-zero policies.
According to the Net Zero Tracker, 34 nations – including the UK – have set a net-zero target into law, signifying the highest possible level of commitment.
In addition, 63 nations have stated their goal in a policy document, 16 nations have made a net-zero “pledge” and 23 nations have a net-zero “proposal”. (Four nations have declared that they have already reached net-zero.)
The US, the world’s largest historical emitter when counting its cumulative climate impact since the start of the industrial revolution, had a net-zero target under former president Joe Biden. However, it was abandoned by the current Trump administration.
Despite this, some 18 regions and 43 cities in the US still have some form of net-zero commitment, according to the Net Zero Tracker.
John Lang, lead of the Net Zero Tracker, tells Carbon Brief:
“Ironically, of the world’s 20 largest emitters, only the US and Iran lack net-zero targets – precisely as the Iran crisis exposes the risks of dependence on fossil fuels and volatile oil markets.
“Arguing against net-zero is arguing for greater exposure to geopolitical instability and energy price shocks. The UK has already shown that cutting fossil-fuel dependence can go hand in hand with economic growth, reducing emissions by 54% since 1990 while almost doubling the size of the economy.”
The post Factcheck: US and Iran are world’s only major emitters without net-zero targets appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Factcheck: US and Iran are world’s only major emitters without net-zero targets
Kate Williamson is a research associate focused on climate change adaptation at the Oxford Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and was seconded to the UK Climate Change Committee in 2025. Magnus Benzie is a UK-based affiliated researcher with SEI.
Travel and health services have been upended in the UK as high temperatures lead rails to buckle, electric lines to sag and computer systems to fail.
More new homes are being built on flood-prone plains, and more existing homes are likely to become uninsurable as flood risks grow. Costs of food, petrol and diesel are rising in the wake of extreme weather and disruptions in global supply chains for fertiliser and fuel.
The threats posed by climate change to people in the UK have never been so palpable in so many aspects of daily life. Meanwhile, the policy agenda to address these impacts is practically invisible – eclipsed by other public concerns and confined to largely unimplemented and inadequate plans. It is no accident that the term describing this policy agenda – adaptation – is not widely understood by the general public.
Upcoming report on “well-adapted UK”
The UK needs to change direction and now. This month presents a new opportunity to set a viable course. On May 20, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) – the UK’s independent advisory body on climate change – will release a first-of-its-kind report on creating a “well-adapted UK” as part of its assessment of UK climate risks.
The report will set out evidence on how best to address those risks. In doing so, it will highlight how such a policy agenda can improve daily life for the country’s population.
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Action is long overdue. Thirteen years ago, the UK published its first National Adaptation Plan, which articulated a vision for “a society which makes timely, far-sighted and well-informed decisions to address the risks and opportunities posed by a changing climate”. Since then, second and third editions of this plan have circulated, and a fourth is in the works. Despite multiple cycles of planning, current adaptation policies are still described by the CCC as “inadequate”, “piecemeal” and “heading in the wrong direction”.
Meanwhile, climate change has become a crisis of today, not a distant, future threat.
The public does not need to know the technical jargon of adaptation to understand what they witness first-hand: more frequent extreme weather events, people at risk from high heat in poor housing, and food and fuel poverty exacerbated by wild weather events in the countries that produce our imports. No wonder most UK voters consider the UK unprepared for climate change.
From policy to real resilience
To improve, the UK must move adaptation from the policy periphery and make on-the-ground resilience a central and well-funded focus. Here are ways to begin:
1. Start honest conversations with the public about what adaptation means and why it can help address other pressing concerns. If policymakers talk about adaptation in a way that addresses the things people see and care about, the public is more likely to come along with them. The fragmentation that surfaced in this month’s local elections – with a surge by the Reform Party on the right, the Green Party on the left, and nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales – shows that business-as-usual policies are failing to generate voter support. Ignoring or denying climate change is not a path towards resolving the issues that ail the UK.
Efforts must be made to demonstrate, across the political spectrum, that climate policies are not the enemy of prosperity. Policymakers must make it clear that climate adaptation has to be part of the answer in dealing with public concerns about affordable food and energy, safe and comfortable homes, and healthy lives. The Green Party’s winning campaign in the February by-election in Gorton and Denton, for example, framed environmental issues with respect to local concerns. This is a powerful illustration of how such an approach can resonate.
2. Upgrade adaptation governance to reflect the enormity, complexity and scope of the challenges ahead. Climate change is a force to be reckoned with in virtually all aspects of governance and at all levels. Dealing with it requires all hands on deck. At present, the UK employs a piecemeal approach that has lost the country its role as a global climate adaptation leader. One way to summon the necessary political and financial clout would be to place the adaptation agenda at the heart of government. The UK should leverage a new “strategic resilience” approach – one dedicated to addressing climate shocks and other strategic challenges that occur both within and beyond national borders – as outlined in our recent working paper.
3. Give communities meaningful ways be part of policy decision-making. The results of 2026 local elections make clear that people in the UK are demanding change. Governments at all levels can rebuild trust by meaningfully collaborating with citizens, integrating local concerns into plans, and implementing these. This is not easy, but it can be done. Citizen assemblies, public dialogues and game-play have all proven to be effective.
In a policy secondment at the Climate Change Committee, one of us witnessed the enormous effort that went into finding ways to help decision-makers chart a course to a resilient, stable and healthy future for the UK. The government must now act on the evidence and expert advice, with the level of urgency that the climate crisis requires and Britain’s people deserve.
Key findings from the “Well-adapted UK” report will be the subject of a webinar on May 21 hosted the Climate Change Committee and the UK Maximising Adaptation to Climate Change Hub.
The post The UK faces growing climate threats – where is the response to match? appeared first on Climate Home News.
The UK faces growing climate threats – where is the response to match?
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