Mental health at COP30: From the Global Goal on Adaptation to the Belém Health Action Plan

This year, COP30 will take place in Brazil from the 10th to the 21st of November in the city of Belém, in the heart of the Amazon forest. COP stands for Conference of the Parties and is the decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the central space where international climate agreements are forged (read more about what COPs are and why they are important here). 

While mental health has historically been absent from COP discussions; things are changing. The COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health, for example, highlights the importance of including mental health as part of a holistic response to the health impacts of climate change. 

This COP represents a particularly important moment for climate discussions. It marks 10 years from the signature of the landmark Paris Agreement where countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C and preferable 1.5°C. It is also the year in which countries submit their third iteration of their Nationally Determined Contributions, which outline national plans for countries to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

It also represents a key moment for mental health, as the impacts of climate change on mental health are becoming increasingly visible, including in Brazil. In the lead-up to COP30, we have released a series of case studies showcasing how climate change is negatively impacting mental health in Brazil: from Indigenous groups in the North grappling with droughts and wildfires to communities in the South devastated by floods. You can read more about these case studies here.

A picture from Vavà, one of the community leaders of Vila Dique, a neighborhood to the north of Porto Alegre that was devastated by floods in 2024. Credit: Greice Tonietto.

The Belém Health Action Plan for the Adaptation of the Health Sector to Climate Change

It is time to move from recognising the impacts of climate change on mental health to ensuring concrete actions are taken to safeguard mental health from climate change. We therefore welcome the initiative by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization, of the Belém Health Action Plan for the Adaptation of the Health Sector to Climate Change. For the first time in the history of COPs, mental health appears centrally in this document, with an entire section (section 2.3) highlighting the importance of integrating mental health into climate adaptation in the health sector. Various concrete actions are put forward: from integrating mental health and psychosocial support into national climate and health policies to strengthening mental health systems and providing MHPSS during climate emergencies. The Belém Health Action Plan will be officially endorsed by countries during Health Day, on the 13th of November and we encourage countries to make specific commitments concerning mental health based on actions outlined in the Belém Health Action Plan.

Mental health priorities at COP30

Beyond the Belém Health Action Plan, COP30 represents a key opportunity for ambitious climate action which will contribute to protecting mental health globally. Below, we outline our key asks for COP30 as United for Global Mental Health, in alignment with the broader climate and health community (see recommendations from the Global Climate and Health Alliance here) and the climate community (see the Annual Policy Document from the Climate Action Network here):

Adaptation: Mental health must be protected from the impacts of climate change. Resilient communities are also mentally healthy communities. 

COP30 must fully operationalise the Global Goal on Adaptation with fit for purpose physical and mental health and means of implementation indicators (i.e., indicators on finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building). In particular, we call on Parties to ensure that mental health is tracked in the GGA as per indicator 9c04 on the “Extent of implementation of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) preparedness and response for climate change-sensitive events” as mental health is an essential component of resilient communities and necessary for climate adaptation (read more about our call here).

Just transition: The transition away from fossil fuels must happen in a just, orderly, and equitable way. To do so we must also ensure that the mental health of communities and workers is safeguarded during the transition.  

A just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels is a public mental health imperative. Failure to protect and promote the mental health of workers and communities as they transition away from fossil fuels undermines climate justice, human rights, and equity. At COP30, Parties should agree on a a global mechanism to provide coordination, knowledge, and implementation support for just transitions, the Belém Action Mechanism for a Global Just Transition (BAM), as well as a set of just transition principles including the safeguarding and promotion of physical and mental health health through clean, healthy and sustainable environments, and access to health services and social protection.

Mitigation: Ambitious climate action is a prerequisite for mental health.

Mitigation, with highest emitters taking responsibility to act most rapidly, is a prerequisite to avoid increasingly severe mental health hazards that exceed the limits of adaptation. Ending dependence on fossil fuels, the leading driver of climate change, will not only prevent the worst climate induced health hazards, but will prevent profound negative mental health impacts. Actions to reduce fossil fuel emissions, from active modes of transport to more sustainable diets, can have significant co-benefits for mental health. Follow up on the COP28 call in the Global Stocktake decision by Parties for a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels is a public mental health imperative. 

Finance: Mental health cannot be protected if climate action is not appropriately financed. 

At COP30, the Baku to Belém Roadmap must provide clear direction and assign responsibilities for scaling climate finance to US$ 1.3 trillion from high quality, equitable, non debt-inducing sources. Parties must ensure that finance flows are aligned with climate-resilient development pathways, and can deliver on the Paris Agreement goals, while maintaining fiscal space to invest in health, education, and climate resilience in alignment with the human right to health and to a clean, healthy sustainable environment (for more information on progress on this see here). Mental health cannot be safeguarded if climate action is not appropriately financed.

Loss and damage: Climate change is already impacting mental health now. Appropriate resources should be dedicated to addressing the mental health impacts of climate change via mental health and psychosocial support. 

Mental health experts should be included in the development of technical guidance on loss and damage and should join the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage. Additionally, Parties should discuss sources and instruments, such as a Climate Damages Tax to fill the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, and ensure that resources can be allocated to address both economic and non-economic damages including physical and mental health. 

Agriculture: Highly hazardous pesticides are one of the common means of suicide worldwide. A phase-out of highly hazardous pesticides will save lives and safeguard our planet. 

Parties should integrate agroecology and nutrition, including promoting healthy diets within planetary and social boundaries, into NDCs, adaptation frameworks, and finance. Parties should also shift harmful subsidies towards equitable, humane and sustainable food systems; including a shift away from highly hazardous pesticides which represent one of the most common means of suicide worldwide. They also cause harm to the environment, pollute food and water, and are a threat to beneficial bio-diversity due to negative effects on non-target species.

Gender: Climate change is impacting us all, but it is not impacting us all equally. Women and girls are often disproportionately impacted, for example as gender-based violence increases in the context of extreme weather events, and their unique mental health needs should be considered when it comes to climate action. 

Parties must adopt an ambitious, robust, and intersectional Gender Action Plan (GAP) fit for the purpose of advancing gender equality within the UNFCCC. The GAP should address the gendered mental health impacts of climate change by strengthening capacity on SRHR including through dialogues, information exchange and leadership of women and girls in all their diversity.

Conflict of interest: Fossil fuels are commercial determinants of poor mental health. 

The presence of lobbyists from health-harming and high-emitting industries including fossil fuels, petrochemicals and industrial agriculture has increased dramatically at recent COPs and other international negotiations. The UNFCCC Secretariat should enhance and respond to disclosure of affiliations by COP delegates as well as introduce more stringent regulations pertaining to hosting and sponsorship. Presidencies should lead by example by excluding representatives of polluting industries and the PR agencies which serve them from COP sponsorships and contracts. Parties should exclude representatives of high emitting industries from their delegations and introduce more stringent regulations under arrangements for intergovernmental negotiations.

What will we be doing at COP30?

At COP30, we will be focusing on:

• Advocating for the protection of the mental health indicator during the negotiations on the Global Goal on Adaptation;
• Celebrating the inclusion of mental health within the Belém Health Action Plan and tracking coverage of mental health during the Climate and Health Ministerial that will take place on the 13th of November;
• Contributing to various side-events (see here for a tracker of mental health events and of mental health stakeholders attending COP30 in person).

 

COP30 will represent a key moment for countries to commit to ambitious climate action. Mental health is not only an outcome that will benefit from action on climate change. It can also contribute to encouraging countries to commit to ambitious climate action, by highlighting the human face of climate change and what is at stake in all of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Let’s work together to ensure mental health is central in discussions at COP30, both to protect our health as well as to catalyze ambitious climate action.