SPHERA Consortium Denounces Lack of European Funding for Climate Change and Health Research

“On the basis of information about the upcoming Horizon Europe 2025 call for proposals, the European Commission has proposed a budget of around €970 million for health research—yet, alarmingly, no funds are allocated to research on the effects of climate change on health. This needs to change.”

Thus, with the above paragraph, begins a statement with which the SPHERA consortium denounces what it understands to be a “disappointing omission” in the European Commission's draft Horizon 2025 research grant program. SPHERA brings together Europe's leading environmental, climate and health research institutions, including ISGlobal.

“Let's not wait for the next crisis to act,” SPHERA demands, while recalling that the data show that the Mediterranean region is suffering a more accelerated warming than the world average. “The European Union, along with the World Health Assembly and global authorities, has recognized the grave risks climate change poses to human health”, they argue. For this reason, they believe that by omitting specific approaches to climate change and health from research agendas, a contradiction is being made.

Extreme weather events, warming and other health threats

The scientific staff signing the document recalls that climate change already poses a serious threat to health in Europe, giving as an example the extreme weather events, such as the recent floods in Valencia or those that have occurred in Italy, Germany, Poland or Central Europe.

Another of the key issues to be addressed is the risk posed by rising temperatures, after a year, 2024, which will again beat heat records and when studies are available that quantify in about 70,000 and 47,000, respectively, deaths attributable to heat in the summers of 2022 and 2023.

“Furthermore recent results from the large  EXHAUSTION project pointed out at synergistic health effects of air pollution and heat on cardiorespiratory health across Europe”, they note.

Other climate-related health issues of concern to the scientific community are “longer pollen season and introduction of new pollen species” or “sharp increases in forest fires and related air pollution episodes.”

Common front

SPHERA's statement closes with an offer to work together to find solutions: “Our institutions stand ready to support the EU in developing and delivering the evidence-based solutions needed to protect public health and build a resilient Europe in the face of climate change.”

SPHERA statement

The full SPHERA statement is available here.