Our Global Campaign, Trinity School of Medicine at COP31

Global context: In May 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health (1) called on WHO to formally declare climate change as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

In October 2026, a correspondence calling for climate change to be declared a public health emergency of international concern was published in the Lancet (2). It was co-authored by Trinity’s Dr. Matthew Chersich who is a research fellow in the School of Medicine as well as research professor and executive director at Wits Planetary Health Research division, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.  

That call was echoed in October 2026 by policy leaders in Africa who urged WHO to act without delay to declare climate change a health emergency given the threat of a super El-Nino (3).

Also in October 2026, the Lancet Countdown, published ahead of COP31, called for climate change to be formally recognised and addressed as a global health emergency (4).