Climate change is driving an escalating cascade of crises—from extreme weather events and worsening food insecurity to shifting patterns of infectious diseases and rising rates of non-communicable diseases. These interconnected conditions have a profound effect on human health. Despite calls for bold action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to unavoidable climate impacts, these demands remain critically unmet. When action is taken, health considerations are too often overlooked.
In response, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) is leading a coordinated, systems-level approach that transcends sectors, borders, and disciplines, placing health for all at the forefront of climate action with its Roadmap for Transformative Action to Achieve Health for All at Net-Zero Emissions (Roadmap). Part of the NAM’s Climate Grand Challenge, the Roadmap is an ambitious effort to catalyze climate mitigation and adaption solutions, prioritizing the most impactful, evidence-based strategies that advance health and sustainability for all.
“The National Academy of Medicine envisions a future where climate action is synonymous with health for all,” said NAM President Victor J. Dzau. “The Roadmap initiative will chart a course to reduce emissions while simultaneously producing co-benefits to improve public health, strengthen societal resilience, and foster sustainable economic growth. We are seizing upon this moment to advance a new model, one that centers human and planetary needs: a net-zero, well-being economy.”
Underpinning this bold vision is a Commission of global leaders across sectors, co-chaired by Andrew Haines (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and Judith Rodin (formerly The Rockefeller Foundation and University of Pennsylvania). Charged with developing the Roadmap, Commission members will identify promising strategies and actionable interventions to address the most pressing climate-related threats to health. View all Roadmap Commission members.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge the Roadmap aims to tackle is precisely how to effect this transformation,” Haines noted. “The work aims to realistically guide systems change, identifying enablers and barriers to advance shared goals around climate change, sustainability, and health for all.”
To inform its final report, NAM is organizing a series of four information-gathering workshops in 2025 to convene global leaders across diverse sectors and leverage the best available evidence and insights to propel climate action. The Roadmap’s first workshop, The “What” of Systems Transformation: Anchoring Climate Action in Health, is on April 29 and 30, 2025. It will establish a foundation for systems transformation by examining the global economic sectors driving climate change—including energy, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, and heavy industry—and their role in achieving net-zero emissions. Discussions will explore the interconnected economic, political, and social systems that shape sector-specific and cross-sector responses to climate change, all critical factors in advancing a new, hopeful, and inclusive economic model.
Future workshops will address strategies and levers to effect transformative change, opportunities for nations navigating rapid urbanization, and scalable case studies to inform NAM’s development of this evidence-based, action-oriented framework for centering health in climate action.
“The Roadmap will help decision-makers across government, industry, and civil society to allocate precious resources to best support the most impactful climate actions that also protect health,” said Rodin. “Particularly in communities most vulnerable to climate impacts, the Roadmap will identify effective interventions for replication and scale up.”
Register for The “What” of Systems Transformation: Anchoring Climate Action in Health workshop.
