Health and the NDCs 3.0

Every government that signed the Paris Agreement must submit a new climate plan in 2025, and this project pushes them to include health in those plans. The problem is straightforward: national climate pledges—called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—have historically focused on emissions and energy, largely ignoring how climate action affects human health. That gap means governments miss opportunities to design policies that simultaneously cut carbon, improve air quality, reduce disease, and save money on healthcare. This project coordinates health organisations, the World Health Organization, and the NDC Partnership to produce a public "Healthy NDC Scorecard" that grades each country's plan on health integration, alongside media launches and direct lobbying of national governments. If successful, the 2025 NDC cycle could embed health considerations—such as reducing fossil fuel pollution to prevent asthma and heart disease, or designing green spaces to improve mental health—as a standard part of climate policy. The project does not generate new scientific data; it is a strategic advocacy and coordination effort aimed at changing how governments think about climate ambition by showing them the health and economic benefits of doing so.