The World Health Organization and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have renewed a partnership aimed at putting health at the center of the global climate response, as countries confront rising temperatures, heavier rains, worsening floods and the spread of climate-sensitive disease.
Under the renewed arrangement, the Netherlands is providing a new allocation of €500,000 for 2024 to WHO, bringing its total support for WHO climate and health activities to more than €1.1 million since 2023. The funding is intended to reinforce WHO's work on climate resilience and sustainable healthcare systems, including support for the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health Secretariat and broader climate change and health programmes.
The announcement comes as governments and health systems are under growing pressure to adapt to a world in which climate shocks are increasingly translating into direct health emergencies. WHO said the partnership has already helped African, Asian and Eastern Mediterranean countries advance integrated climate and health surveillance and early warning systems, improve capacity to deliver on COP26 health commitments, harmonize warning systems for climate-related health risks and strengthen readiness for climate-resilient health systems.
For WHO, the Dutch support is part of a wider effort to help Member States build health systems that can withstand climate stress while also reducing their own carbon footprint. That dual objective has become a central theme in global health policy: hospitals, clinics and supply chains must be able to function during floods, heatwaves and storms, while also cutting emissions in a sector that is itself energy-intensive.
The Netherlands has positioned itself as one of the more active advocates for climate action in health, aligning the partnership with its Global Health Strategy 2023-2030, which explicitly highlights the intersection of climate change and health. The renewed cooperation also reflects a broader diplomatic push by The Hague to keep health visible in climate negotiations, especially as countries prepare for discussions at COP29 in Azerbaijan in 2024.
The partnership has gained additional political weight after the Netherlands, together with Peru, led the adoption in 2024 of World Health Assembly Resolution 77 on climate change and health. The resolution calls for a WHO global action plan, stronger national efforts and the mainstreaming of climate change and health into WHO's new Fourteenth General Programme of Work. It also underscores the urgency of updating global health governance to reflect the scale of the climate threat.
WHO said climate change will remain a key priority area in the new GPW, where work with Member States and partners is expected to contribute to an estimated 7.5 million lives saved over the next four years, according to WHO's latest Investment Case. That projection reflects the organization's broader argument that climate action is not only an environmental imperative but a public health necessity, with benefits ranging from fewer heat-related deaths to reduced disease outbreaks and stronger emergency preparedness.
The latest renewal also highlights the importance of partnerships beyond governments alone. WHO said collaboration with civil society, multilateral development banks, UN agencies and health professionals is central to concerted action on climate change and health. That networked approach is increasingly seen as essential in vulnerable regions, where climate impacts often arrive faster than health systems can adapt.
The urgency of that challenge was underscored by WHO's own imagery from Kenya, where rapid responders assessed the aftermath of flash flooding in the Mai Mahiu region on April 29. Between March and May 2024, the country experienced exceptionally heavy rains that caused widespread devastation, including fatalities, disease outbreaks and severe infrastructure damage. Such events have become emblematic of the way climate change can cascade into public health crises, overwhelming local services and exposing gaps in preparedness.
Against that backdrop, the Dutch contribution may be modest in financial terms, but it is strategically significant. It helps sustain WHO's institutional capacity at a moment when the organization is trying to translate climate-health commitments into practical tools for countries on the front lines. It also signals continued political backing from a European government that sees climate resilience and health system strengthening as inseparable.
For WHO and the Netherlands, the renewed partnership is less about a single grant than about sustaining momentum in a field where the stakes are rising quickly. As climate shocks intensify and health systems face mounting strain, both sides say the priority remains clear: keep health at the center of climate action, and help countries build systems that can protect people before the next crisis arrives.