WHO Achieves Accreditation with Green Climate Fund

The World Health Organization (WHO) has today received accreditation from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a financial mechanism created under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This accreditation will open new avenues for funding aimed at shielding communities around the globe from the health effects associated with climate change.

"Climate and health action saves lives," said Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change, One Health, and Migration at WHO. "Climate financing will ensure that the health sector is prepared to meet the demands of the climate crisis without contributing further emissions to climate change."

This landmark decision is the outcome of extensive preparations, which included high-level exchanges between the Director-General of the WHO and the Executive Director of the GCF.

WHO has over 25 years of experience in climate and health policy and technical leadership, along with more than 15 years of implementing climate and health programs in over 30 countries. Its extensive country presence and partnerships with ministries of health and governmental agencies establish WHO as a crucial ally in tackling global climate and health challenges. The collaboration between WHO and GCF will facilitate direct climate and health programs and the creation of health-promoting interventions at the country level by utilizing a network of health ministries and key partners.

WHO will support projects by facilitating technical partnerships, providing implementation toolkits, coordinating peer reviews, and monitoring processes to ensure quality and scalability. The WHO-hosted Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), launched in 2022, will play a critical role, including identifying co-financing for any potential investments by GCF through its network of over 200 country and partner members.

There has been remarkable progress in global climate-health action since the World Health Organization's (WHO) application to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2015. Addressing climate change has been prioritized in WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW14) for the years 2025 to 2028. In 2024, a Resolution on Climate Change and Health was adopted during the seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, and health has consistently been a focus at recent UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs), which featured dedicated Health Days and the adoption of the Belém Health Action Plan at COP30 in Brazil.

"Climate financing is crucial to tackling the climate-health crisis," said Dr. Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, Head of Climate Change, Air Quality, Energy, and Health at WHO. "WHO will use this opportunity to ensure low- and middle-income countries have access to the resources needed to build climate-resilient and sustainable low-carbon health systems."

The impact of climate change on humanity is well established, with increasing recognition of its health impacts within the international community. Health is identified as a priority in 91% of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—the national climate action plans developed by each country under the Paris Agreement—yet only a few of these NDCs outline specific actions to enhance health benefits through climate adaptation and/or mitigation.

According to estimates, only 2% of adaptation funding and merely 0.5% of multilateral climate funding are allocated to health, resulting in significant unmet demands in the health sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to tackle these financing needs for climate adaptation and to empower national health ministries to establish climate-resilient health systems, lower emissions, and strengthen climate-health initiatives across various sectors.

WHO's accreditation to the GCF catalyzes a paradigm shift by embedding health resilience and health equity into climate finance, thereby transforming the design, implementation, and evaluation of climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. WHO's leadership in global health, along with its operational capacity and normative authority, enables it to oversee and supervise impactful, multisectoral projects.