This blog post is a reflection by Dr Fortunate Machingura (Director, Department of Climate Environment, CeSHHAR Zimbabwe), on the Global Climate and Health Summit in London, where science, dialogue, and resolve converged on one truth: climate and health are now inseparable crises that require urgent and properly resourced action……Africa has the evidence and leadership, what’s missing is climate finance.
A Global Summit, a Continental Moment
I had the honour of serving as Vice Chair of the Global Climate and Health Summit held in London on 16–17 July 2025, alongside Professor Mike Tipton of the Physiological Society. It was a privilege to work with a remarkable scientific committee of experts spanning disciplines—heat physiology, evolutionary biology, food systems, planetary health, implementation science, and science diplomacy. Over 500 participants joined in person and virtually, creating an electric atmosphere of learning, dialogue, and resolve. What stood out most to me was not only the science—important as it was—but the quiet but powerful narrative on financing what works. There was a shared understanding that climate and health are no longer separate concerns. They are converging crises—and responding to them requires urgent, properly resourced action.
The Stark Reality: Africa’s Climate–Health Financing Crisis
The numbers are staggering. According to WHO estimates, the direct damage costs to health from climate change will reach between $2 to $4 billion annually by 2030. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Broader adaptation needs across Africa are projected to exceed $30 billion annually, with cumulative needs estimated at $407 billion from 2020 to 2030.
Yet we are experiencing a steep decline in support when it’s most needed. Official development assistance to Africa has declined sharply, from US $81 billion in 2013 to around US $25 billion by 2025 — a 70% drop that poses a major risk to health systems, maternal care, and climate adaptation efforts, particularly in low-income countries. Africa’s health systems remain heavily reliant on donors, with 30–40% of public health spending aid-funded, according to the World Bank. At the same time, debt servicing costs have skyrocketed up from $17 billion in 2010 to $81 billion projected between 2023 and 2025. We are now in a situation where many African governments are spending more on repaying debt than they receive in external financing.
This is happening while the continent is facing a rise in disease outbreaks and extreme weather events. Between 2022 and 2024, Africa saw a 41% increase in disease outbreaks—from 152 to 230. This expanding risk landscape, coupled with shrinking aid and rising debt, exposes a dangerous mismatch between Africa’s growing needs and the shrinking resources available to meet them.
Shared Stages, Shared Struggles: Africa’s Leadership in Focus
One of the most defining moments of the Summit was the joint appearance of Kerry McCarthy MP, the UK Government’s Minister for Climate Change, and Dr Douglas Mombeshora, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Health and Child Care. Together, they affirmed both the escalating urgency of the climate and health crisis and the imperative for bold, high-level political leadership. Representing Africa as the Ministerial Champion on Climate and Health, Dr Mombeshora’s role was formally endorsed by the African Union through the Africa CDC Southern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre’s Annual Technical Advisory Committee meeting and was further reaffirmed at the Regional Ministerial Steering Committee convened in Lilongwe the following week. Addressing the global audience, Dr Mombeshora reminded participants that the Harare Declaration on Climate and Health is not a symbolic gesture but a living framework for implementation—already being acted upon by national governments and regional bodies committed to realising its goals. Their shared stage signaled something deeper: a growing recognition that Africa must be at the forefront of global climate–health discourse.
“If we want to build resilient health systems, we need to finance them. We cannot adapt without support, and we cannot wait for perfect conditions.”
Dr Douglas Mombeshora (Minister of Health and Child Care, Zimbabwe)
Too often, the global North and South speak in parallel tracks. But here, for once, we were aligned in purpose, if not yet in power. At the heart of the Ministerial dialogue was the issue of unlocking climate finance. Despite years of commitment, many global climate funds remain inaccessible to African countries. The Green Climate Fund, for example, promises $100 billion annually from developed nations—but fewer than five African countries have managed to access significant portions of this. Meanwhile, institutions like the Adaptation Fund, though promising, remain under-resourced and bureaucratically inaccessible for local implementers.
Heat Indicators for Global Health, Infrastructure, and the Imperative of Convening
Financing adaptation is not just about securing money—it is about building capacities, governance structures, and long-term institutions. What emerged clearly from the Summit is that successful interventions already exist—but we lack the scale and financial architecture to take them further. The HeatNexus platform, supported by the Wellcome Trust and coordinated by IDS, brings together researchers across LMICs—including Ms Celeste Madondo, Dr Ana Bonell, and Professor Martina Maggioni—who are designing and testing scalable adaptation–mitigation solutions. Ms Celeste Madondo, presenting on behalf of the High Horizons project, demonstrated practical examples of adaptation-mitigation interventions that are already transforming lives. But these require sustainable financing—both for implementation and institutional integration.
“We need to tap into the Adaptation Fund and Green Climate Fund not just for feasibility studies, but for national-scale deployment including scaling heat indicators for global health.”
Ms Celeste Madondo
Dr Ana Bonell presented evidence on how heat exposure affects maternal and newborn health, highlighting the importance of investing in vulnerable populations and building systems to track heat impacts through surveillance and routine indicators. Without data, there can be no accountability—and without financing, there can be no data. Professor Martina Maggioni’s presentation on tropical diseases reminded us that as heat rises, so too does the threat of malaria and other vector-borne infections. The epidemiology of the future will be driven by heat, mobility, and inequality—and it will be expensive to respond to unless we invest now.
Champions, Strategies, and Continental Coordination
The Summit further reaffirmed the role of political leadership in climate–health. The Africa CDC’s Southern Africa Strategy for Climate and Health—offers a blueprint for building regional coordination and response. Through ministerial champions, regional research hubs, and community-led efforts, Africa is developing a uniquely grounded and multisectoral approach. This is the moment to finance that leadership. At CeSHHAR Zimbabwe, we are contributing to this agenda by generating evidence on scalable interventions, building implementation research platforms, and co-developing policy solutions with government and community partners. But these efforts, like so many across the continent, will only go as far as the financing takes them.
What’s Next: From Words to Action
The Global Summit on Climate and Health was a moment of clarity. We now have the evidence, the leadership, and the strategies. What we need is the money—and the political courage—to match our ambitions with action. Climate finance is not just a technical instrument. It is a lifeline for the systems we are trying to build—and for the lives we are trying to save.
