Poster #66 - Health Integration in Post-2025 National Climate Commitments: Cross-National Evidence from NDCs.

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Climate change poses increasing risks to population health through rising burdens of heat-related illness, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and widening health inequalities. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), submitted under the Paris Agreement, are the primary policy instruments through which governments articulate national climate priorities and implementation strategies. While the World Health Organisation has reviewed the inclusion of health in earlier NDC cycles, less systematic evidence exists on how health is integrated in the most recent submissions and whether it appears as an explicit policy objective rather than an indirect co-benefit of climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

This study examines how health is incorporated into post-2025 NDC submissions and asks to what extent countries frame health as a direct policy commitment within national climate strategies. The analysis draws on a dataset of 101 English-language NDC reports submitted in or after 2025.
Using a structured computational text-analysis approach, the study applies a hierarchical keyword framework distinguishing between direct health references (e.g., health systems, disease burden, preparedness) and broader climate–health linkage terms (e.g., co-benefits, resilience, environmental exposure pathways). The distribution of health-related references is compared across geographic regions and World Bank income groups and interpreted alongside patterns reported in earlier WHO NDC review cycles to provide an initial longitudinal benchmark of changes in policy attention.

Preliminary findings indicate that most countries reference health in their latest NDC submissions, but explicit health policy commitments remain uneven across regions and income groups. Direct and indirect references to health appear at broadly comparable levels overall, although health is frequently framed as a secondary benefit of climate action rather than as a standalone policy objective. Higher levels of health-related attention are observed in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in South Asia and Africa, while high-income countries show greater variation, with Canada representing a notable exception. References to COVID-related preparedness appear less frequently than reported in earlier WHO assessments.

These findings provide comparative evidence on how governments are integrating health considerations into national climate policy commitments and highlight persistent gaps in explicit policy prioritisation. The results support ongoing efforts to strengthen health-inclusive target setting and monitoring frameworks in future NDC revisions and contribute to policy discussions on improving the alignment between climate mitigation strategies and public health objectives.

Author

• Kwabena Ampong Kutin-Buah, University College London
  Presenting Author