National Health and Climate Strategy

About the strategy

We launched Australia’s first National Health and Climate Strategy on 3 December 2023.

The strategy outlines priorities for the next 5 years to realise the vision of “healthy, climate-resilient communities, and a sustainable, resilient, high-quality, net zero health system”.

Download the National Health and Climate Strategy

Why this is important

People in Australia are already experiencing the impacts of climate change on their health and wellbeing.

Climate change is worsening environmental hazards, such as:

extreme heat
dangerous floods and fires
air pollution
drought.

These all have negative effects on human health and wellbeing: they cause death, disease, injury, and mental and emotional distress. This means there is an urgent need to build the climate resilience of our communities and our health system.

At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions from the health system also contribute to climate change. We need to identify areas we can reduce emissions in the delivery of care, and contribute to achieving a net zero Australia by 2050.

About the consultation

As part of the process to develop the National Health and Climate Strategy, we undertook a consultation process focused around a consultation paper asking 25 questions. The invitation for written submissions and an online survey were open to public response from 2 June to 24 July 2023. The department also held workshops and roundtables around Australia.

Over 300 stakeholders attended our workshops and roundtables and shared their views, concerns, and aspirations for the Strategy. The department received 270 submissions via the Consultation Hub. Participants included organisations and individuals from a diverse group of stakeholders including medical professionals, primary care, advocacy organisations, academia, industry, and medical societies and colleges. To read more about what we were told during this consultation process, please see the Final Thematic Stakeholder Report.

Objectives

The strategy is organised around 4 objectives:

Health system resilience: build a climate-resilient health system and enhance its capacity to protect health and wellbeing from the impacts of climate change.
Health system decarbonisation: build a sustainable, high quality, net zero health system.
International collaboration: collaborate internationally to build sustainable, climate-resilient health systems and communities.
Health in all policies: support healthy, climate-resilient and sustainable communities through whole-of-government action which recognises the relationship between health and climate outcomes.

The strategy outlines actions to be implemented in relation to these 4 objectives, as well as in relation to four key ‘enablers’ of action:

workforce, leadership and training
research and innovation
communication and engagement
collaboration and governance.

The strategy emphasises the need to elevate the leadership, wisdom and knowledge of First Nations people in the response to the health impacts of climate change.

Governance

In 2024, we established three governance groups to provide advice and support delivery of the National Health and Climate Strategy:

a National Climate and Health Program Board consisting of senior officials from across the Australian Government, who will oversee the whole-of-government effort to implement the strategy.
a Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group consisting of leading climate and health experts from professional, community and sector groups as well as from academia.
a State and Territory Climate and Health Working Group, consisting of climate and health policy leads from state and territory Departments of Health.

These groups will enhance collaboration across all levels of government, as well as across the wider climate and health stakeholder community.

For further information, please visit Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group (CHEAG).

Implementation Plan and Progress

In 2024, the National Health, Sustainability and Climate Unit commenced implementation of the strategy.

The National Health and Climate Strategy Implementation Plan is an initial plan for the Australian Government to deliver the 49 actions outlined in the strategy. The Implementation Plan presents the approach to deliver actions prioritised in 2024 and foreshadows activities for 2025 and beyond.

The National Health and Climate Strategy 2024 Implementation Progress Report outlines progress in implementing the Strategy through to March 2025. This report completements the National Health and Climate Strategy Implementation Plan 2024-2028.

Resources