Health researchers ask WHO to declare climate change an emergency
Scientists at Wits and elsewhere say a formal declaration would unlock money and coordination. Health ministries in Senegal, Namibia and Zimbabwe back the call.
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Johannesburg — A group of public health researchers, among them specialists at the University of the Witwatersrand, is calling on the World Health Organization to declare the health impacts of climate change a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The WHO uses that status for extraordinary events that threaten other states and may need a coordinated response. Two of four tests must be met: whether the threat is serious, unusual or unexpected, likely to spread internationally, or likely to bring travel or trade restrictions. The authors say climate change meets most or all of them.
Why now
They point to an unprecedented El Niño, and to a recent report forecasting 451,000 additional heat-related deaths from June 2026 to February 2027.
Their own work in Africa has found that heat can harm the health of mothers during pregnancy, lead to poor birth outcomes and possibly cause lifelong problems for children. Health workers are affected too.
What communities already know
In research with communities in South Africa, they found that people know the risks they face and live with them daily. What they lack is the means to adapt. Those most affected, including people in the global south, often contribute least to the problem and have the fewest resources.
What a declaration would do
The authors argue it would build political will, mobilise financing, bring central coordination from the WHO and provide evidence-based recommendations. The call has support from health ministries across Africa, including in Senegal, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The next step they seek is for countries to trigger the process, so that an expert committee can assess the risk.
Source: The Conversation, 28 October 2026.
