Climate change poses an immediate and growing challenge to public health and social wellbeing across Europe, particularly for vulnerable populations. Despite this, both Portugal and the UK lack national and local capacity to respond to protect these groups.

In both countries, there is growing recognition of the urgent need to build resilience against the health impacts of climate change at the national level, as well as in communities.

Our approach

This area of work will support and connect civil society innovators working in the climate-health space in Portugal, the UK and across Europe. The Foundation aims to facilitate shared learning from pilots across the region and support the scaling of good practice.

Early research has highlighted the need for multi-sector collaboration in this field between universities, local authorities, non-profit organisations, health and environmental agencies and others. It also highlights that local-scale, community-based approaches can be fast and effective at building resilience. Large-scale interventions can help the built environment adapt to climate impacts, but there is also a need for civil society interventions that build on ‘social infrastructure’, such as community groups and public places that build cooperation and allow people to support each other.

An initial scoping phase will enable the Foundation to conduct research, evaluate our contribution and nurture relationships with other initiatives across Europe, before developing partnerships and pilot projects.