Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome Partnership Drives Global Climate-Informed Health Action

The Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome jointly mobilize U.S. $11.5 million to support the World Health Organization-World Meteorological Organization Climate and Health Joint Programme

GENEVA | May 21, 2025 — At a moment when extreme weather events are worsening human health, The Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome are partnering to provide real-time meteorological alerts and other valuable information to health officials in vulnerable communities and low- and middle-income countries. A total of U.S. $11.5 million will support the World Health Organization-World Meteorological Organization Climate and Health Joint Programme, to rapidly accelerate and scale weather and climate insights that feed into health decision-making processes in low- and middle-income countries. This includes solutions like health-relevant early warnings and forecasts to better detect, forecast, and respond to extreme weather and climate-related health threats.

Today, climate threats are testing the limits of human survival — fueling food and water insecurity, shifting disease patterns, widening inequality, and increasing death, disease, and ill-health. These health impacts also result in significant ripple effects beyond health, impacting economic productivity, creating new challenges for displaced communities, and driving migration and political instability. Extreme heat, for example, kills an estimated half a million people a year and has resulted in $835 billion in potential lost income in 2023 alone. Advancing heat-warning systems in 57 countries alone could save nearly 100,000 lives per year, but today only 23 percent of national health authorities currently use climate and meteorological data in their health planning.

“This partnership and initiative represent a major step forward. It will accelerate the use of tailored climate services to address some of the most urgent health challenges of our time, from heat-related illness to the spread of infectious diseases. By strengthening early warning systems, digital tools, technical support, and training, we can equip governments and health systems to effectively use climate information and services to save lives,” said Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization. “We are deeply grateful to The Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome for their investment, which will help drive innovative solutions and support climate-resilient health systems in the regions that need them most.”

“After a ‘decade of deadly heat,’ it is clear that public health’s status quo is not going to cut it. To save and improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people, we have to reimagine how we meet our mission today and invest in novel solutions both providers and patients need today,” said Dr. Naveen Rao, Senior Vice President of Health at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Our partnership with Wellcome will accelerate efforts to close the gap between science and life-saving impact and help finally build a health care system fit for purpose in the 21st century.”

“We must put people’s health at the heart of climate solutions. Our changing climate negatively affects our diet, the air we breathe, the heat stress on our body, our mental health and increases the risks to food-borne or water-borne infections as well as disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes,” said Dr. Alan Dangour, Director of Climate and Health at Wellcome. “But there are known solutions and science can show the way with major benefits for human health around the world. Our partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation alongside other global organizations will ensure that robust scientific evidence drives policy and action.”

The joint investment was announced on the sidelines of the 78^th World Health Assembly, where The Rockefeller Foundation announced a U.S. $5.2 million grant to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to support the WHO-WMO Climate and Health Joint Programme, matching Wellcome’s US $6.3 million grant announced last October at the World Health Summit. The joint investment will focus on efforts to:

• Prototype and scale in-country operational health-meteorological units in 7 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia to more effectively harness cutting-edge climate and weather science.
• Support cross-sectoral collaboration and capacity building between National Meteorological Agencies and Ministries of Health in at least 80 countries.
• Catalyze investment and collaboration to accelerate a more informed, aligned, strategic, and coordinated response to prevent immediate and long-term impacts of climate on human health.
• Advance science-based health action by elevating scientific understanding of weather and climate impacts on health in support of decision-making at national, regional, and international levels.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity. Today, we are focused on advancing human opportunity and reversing the climate crisis by transforming systems in food, health, energy, and finance. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.

About Wellcome 

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.