At a glance
View recent news from the Climate and Health Program.
Climate and health news
June 2024 Effects by Region Success Stories. CDC's Climate and Health Program supports states, counties, cities, tribes, and territories in assessing how climate change will affect their community, identifying populations more vulnerable to climate change, and implementing adaptation and preparedness strategies to reduce the health effects of climate change. Read about the Climate and Health Program's various partnerships and success stories across the United States.
May 2024 Effects by Region. Each region of the United States experiences climate change and its impacts on health differently, due to the regions' location-specific climate exposures and unique societal and demographic characteristics. The Climate and Health Program has summarized some of the various health impacts climate change will have on different regions of the United States.
May 2024 CDC and ATSDR, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) and HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary (OASH), have released the Heat and Health Index (HHI) as the latest in a set of tools and resources intended to improve the nation's ability to stay safe during heat events.
The HHI combines historic temperature data and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data on heat-related emergency responses from the past three years, as well as data on community characteristics, including pre-existing health conditions, socio-demographic information, and characteristics of the natural and built environment, to provide a final heat and health index ranking by ZIP code, which can be used to empower strategic, data-informed decision-making.
February 2, 2024 CDC's Climate and Health Program worked with the CDC Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago to create a climate and health course titled "Climate and Health: A Training for Health Department Personnel." The course includes sections on climate and health basics, integrating climate and health into health department activities, and tools and examples to help health departments build climate resilience. The training also provides resources for health department personnel to use after completing the training.
June 1, 2023 The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from the Climate and Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has awarded Franklin County Public Health in Ohio, San Juan Basin Public Health in Colorado, Tennessee Public Health Association, and a partnership between the Town of Natick and the City of Framingham in Massachusetts with $20,000 each to supplement ongoing climate change and health adaptation initiatives at the local level. Three of the four grant recipients serve small or rural jurisdictions. Learn more here.
November 30, 2022 Because the health impacts of climate change are far reaching and intersect with a diverse range of public health issues, the CDC/ATSDR is committed to integrating climate and health considerations into all its work. CDC/ATSDR's FY 2022 Strategic Framework describes how the agency is working to enhance preparedness and response capabilities for climate-related emergencies, improve CDC/ATSDR's climate-sensitive disease surveillance, expand the climate research evidence base, disseminate key messages to protect the public from climate-sensitive diseases, and address inherent health equity and environmental justice issues. Please take time to read our strategic framework and share with others how CDC/ATSDR is addressing the health impacts of climate change.
September 6, 2022 Climate and Health Story Maps – CDC has published three story maps that address important climate and health issues. These story maps, provided below, address the use of green spaces to improve health and mitigate climate change, how the Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative (CRSCI) helps prevent and reduce the health effects of poor air quality, and what CRSCI grant recipients are doing to prepare for and respond to rising temperatures.
April 22, 2022 CDC's Climate and Health Program has a new webpage on climate justice. Learn about how CDC is supporting public health departments and climate adaptation planners as they incorporate justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles into their climate and health efforts.
April 15, 2022 The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from CDC, has awarded the Calhoun County Health Department in Illinois, GreenRoots in Massachusetts, and Public Health—Seattle-King County in Washington with $25,000 each to supplement ongoing climate change and health adaptation initiatives at the local level. Learn more here.