Climate Change and Health

The Challenge

Climate change is the largest global health challenge of the 21st century. It represents a profound threat to the Global Fund’s mission to defeat HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, save lives and build a healthier, safer, more equitable world for all.

While the threat of the climate crisis is universal, the speed and severity of the impacts are not.  Countries that are the least responsible for carbon emissions are often the most vulnerable to its effects and the least able to adapt. They are often countries with a high disease burden, where the Global Fund has made significant investments in HIV, TB and malaria programs and health and community systems.

Malaria is one of the most climate-sensitive diseases. Temperature changes, shifting rainfall patterns and extreme weather events are affecting the spread of malaria. Climate change is expanding mosquito habitats to higher elevation areas and making the malaria transmission season longer.

Climate change also jeopardizes our mission to end AIDS and TB. Climate disasters and extreme weather events are causing people to become displaced. This leads to disruptions in health service delivery and essential diagnosis and treatment services, which in turn can lead to increased disease transmission and drug resistance.

Compounding these challenges, climate change impacts the Global Fund’s mission to reduce health inequities by worsening existing inequalities and vulnerabilities of people affected by HIV, TB and malaria.

Our Response

The Global Fund is committed to promoting low-carbon, climate-resilient health and community systems and addressing the impacts of climate change on the fight against HIV, TB and malaria. We support countries that are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change – between 2023 and 2025, 71% of our investments and over 80% of our malaria funding are going to the 50 most climate-vulnerable countries.

Our investments of US$2 billion¹ a year in health systems contribute to building strong and climate-resilient health and community systems that are better prepared for pandemic threats.

For example, the Global Fund supports countries to digitize their health systems and health records so that they are not lost when a climate disaster hits. We also invest in community health workers so that they can reach people in the most remote locations. Engaging with and empowering communities and civil society is crucial to understanding context-specific climate risks to health. Communities and civil society are the key to identifying and scaling up locally led climate solutions to build health systems and services that can withstand the increasing impacts of climate change.

The Global Fund’s model is geared towards agility in the face of crisis. We support countries to respond to the impact of extreme weather events on the diseases we fight by providing rapid, flexible emergency funding. Our Emergency Fund was established in 2014 and provides quick and flexible financing in emergencies to ensure the continuity of existing HIV, TB and malaria programs and services. From 2014 to 2023, 37% of emergency funds awarded addressed climate-related disasters and extreme weather events.

Working in partnership is crucial to address the most pressing global challenges. In 2023, the Global Fund announced new strategic partnerships with the World Bank and the Green Climate Fund to accelerate investments in the nexus between climate and health.

Fighting deadly infectious diseases must go hand-in-hand with responding to climate change. This is our fight. We won’t stop until the job is finished.

[1] This figure is based on the recently endorsed Global Fund Strategy Committee methodology that integrates direct investments in resilient and sustainable systems for health (RSSH) and contributions to RSSH through investments in the fight against HIV, TB and malaria (contributory RSSH). The amount is derived from approved and signed grant budgets and RSSH-related catalytic investments and includes C19RM. This methodology excludes Global Fund Secretariat operating expenses.