Redefining Global Health in the 21st Century, Chapter 5: The Climate Crisis is a Health Crisis: Reframing the Global Health Agenda in an Era of Planetary Instability
Episode Description
Recorded at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Ben and Dr. mike Reid discuss how climate disruption will exacerbate existing infectious diseases, enable emerging threats, and worsen non-infectious conditions, arguing global health must anticipate and mitigate climate-health impacts. They note health was sidelined at COP Egypt 2025 and that few national climate plans include health adaptation budgets. Case studies contrast Pakistan’s 2022 floods—2.6 million new malaria cases, fivefold dengue increase, and 20% of primary care facilities underwater—with Mozambique’s Cyclone Idai response, where PEPFAR-supported HIV infrastructure enabled faster recovery through reliable supply chains, information systems, energy backups, and workforce support. They emphasize integrated, resilient primary care and scaled community health workforces (e.g., Ethiopia), including community-delivered mental health care, amid shrinking donor support. mike explains applying Kate Raworth’s “donut economics” to climate-health financing, referencing the Bridgetown Initiative and proposing climate-health bonds, while also highlighting greener delivery, regional manufacturing, and lower-emission prevention tools like lenacapavir and cabotegravir.
00:00 Live from Rio
00:52 Climate-Driven Disease
03:26 Health Plans Missing
05:31 Resilient Systems
06:10 Pakistan Flood Case
08:00 Mozambique Cyclone Ida
11:35 Primary Care Backbone
12:27 Community Health Workforce
14:22 Conference Funding Shift
17:09 Donut Economics Explained
20:55 Cameroon Donut Priorities
22:25 Why Leaders Ignore Health
23:32 Financing Climate Health
29:57 Sustainable Global Health
32:09 One Key Investment
33:34 Rio Networking Surprise
35:02 Wrap-Up and Credits
Learn more about the book:
https://bit.ly/redefining-global-health
More from UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences:
https://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu
Check Out mike Reid’s Substack:
https://substack.com/@reimaginingglobalhealth
Check Out Ben’s Substack:
https://substack.com/@benplumley1
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