Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health launches call to action with key input from Pathfinder Initiative experts.
Andy Haines presenting at a PECCH event in Geneva. Image credit: WHO / Violaine Martin.
Pathfinder Initiative experts involved in a new report from the Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health (PECCH) are discussing its recommendations during the 2026 World Health Assembly in Geneva this week, including a call for the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare climate change a public health emergency of international concern.
This is one of the recommendations in the Call to Action report, released on 17 May 2026, that urges heads of governments, ministers, health authorities, cities, funders and the WHO to scale up climate and health action.
The European region is the fastest heating region in the world, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average. The health impacts of extreme heat are already hitting the region hard. Recent evidence suggests almost 70% of the 24,000 estimated heat-related deaths in the summer of 2025 in 854 European cities were attributable to climate change.
The Commission is the first independent regional initiative of its kind on climate change and health, comprising diverse experts from science, public health, policy making, and civil society. Sir Andy Haines, Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and co-Chair of the Pathfinder Initiative, is Chief Scientific Adviser to the Commission.
Professor Andy Haines said: “Climate change is impacting health across the WHO European region and globally, and the response is not matching the scale of the threat. Business as usual will cost lives and increase risks to health from extreme heat, floods, air pollution, infectious disease, and food insecurity. The Commission’s Call to Action provides evidence-based recommendations that decision makers from government, public health, funding and the WHO can implement now to accelerate climate action for a healthier, more sustainable future.”
The PECCH, chaired by H.E. Katrín Jakobsdóttir, former Prime Minister of Iceland, was established in June 2025 in the context of increasing threats from climate change to the pan-European region and the need to put health at the centre of climate action.
The Commission’s Call to Action comes at a crucial moment. Energy prices are volatile, supply chains are under strain, and geopolitical shocks are highlighting the need to transition away from fossil fuel dependency for health, security, and economic stability. With many countries scaling back climate commitments, the PECCH report shows how the pan-European region can lead the way in pushing forward the climate and health agenda and showing the benefits that ambitious action can bring to societies and economies.
The PECCH Call to Action provides a comprehensive set of 17 actionable recommendations across four domains. As well as calling for the formal declaration of climate change as a global public health emergency, the report calls for health systems transformation to increase resilience and reduce the health sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. It also calls on urban and regional networks to formalise climate change and health in their mandates, and for the WHO to monitor and evaluate progress. Engagement with cities and city networks, and providing guidance for evaluation, are core focus areas of work led by the Pathfinder Initiative.
Commenting on the report's recommendations, Dr Iris Blom, researcher at LSHTM and Scientific Writer for the PECCH, said: “Climate action needs to be implemented across all sectors to protect and promote health. At the same time, the health sector contributes 4-5% of global greenhouse emissions and has a key role to play. Climate resilience and environmental sustainability should be embedded in everyday health system practice to drive progress.”
Dr Lorna Benton, Research Fellow at LSHTM (and contributor to the Commission), said: “We have more than enough evidence to implement climate mitigation and adaptation actions that bring benefits to health. But better evaluation of implemented actions is needed to understand what works, and to hold governments and decision makers accountable.”
Andy Haines, Iris Blom, Lorna Benton from the Pathfinder Initiative and other leading experts will discuss the PECCH report’s recommendations at a technical launch event in Geneva on 19 May on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly.
This story has been adapted from an expert comment on the LSHTM website. Read the original comment.
