Climate change education for health-care professionals: crucial gaps in low-income and middle-income countries
Authors: Hoimonty Mazumder, M Mahbub Hossain
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2024)

Climate change poses a substantial threat to human health, leading to millions of additional deaths and illnesses due to increasingly striking extreme weather events.1WHOClimate change.https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-healthDate: 2023Date accessed: August 17, 2023Google Scholar The populations of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) are particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, owing to scarce resources, inadequate planning, and insufficient investment in health care, the environment, and related sectors. Health professionals, as key frontline players focusing on effective mitigation and adaptation strategies, play a pivotal role in responding to climate-driven emergent health hazards. Although many scholars and educators argue for the integration of climate change education into medical curricula, these discourses are predominantly centred on high-income countries.2Hackett F Got T Kitching GT MacQueen K Cohen A Training Canadian doctors for the health challenges of climate change.Lancet Planet Health. 2020; 4: e2-e3Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar, 3Bell EJ Climate change: what competencies and which medical education and training approaches?.BMC Med Educ. 2010; 10: 31Crossref PubMed Scopus (59) Google Scholar, 4Rabin BM Laney EB Philipsborn RP The unique role of medical students in catalyzing climate change education.J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2020; 7 (2382120520957653)PubMed Google Scholar Despite the growing recognition of the health implications of climate change, a considerable gap exists in the education and training of health professionals in LMICs to effectively address climate-related heath crises. This limitation hinders the capacity of health professionals to deliver effective, evidence-based treatment strategies and preventive measures and develop community awareness. The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events can lead to extensive casualties and structural collapse, underscoring the need for health professionals to equip themselves with emergency management and post-disaster management skills. Moreover, health professionals should be involved in environmental health policy making, community resilience development, and adaptive responses. The climate literacy of the health-care professionals is crucial for their effective participation in all of these processes and associated outcomes. Strategic approaches, such as mapping climate change-related health-care competencies and integrating them into the curricula of health professionals, might improve the current gaps in knowledge and practice.2Hackett F Got T Kitching GT MacQueen K Cohen A Training Canadian doctors for the health challenges of climate change.Lancet Planet Health. 2020; 4: e2-e3Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar However, most LMICs have colonial structures and practices in health-care education, which might provide little opportunity to promote climate education and related adaptations. In addition, health-care institutions and policy makers lacking climate literacy might not recognise the need for such pedagogical initiatives, leading to maintenance of the status quo. To address these challenges, a multipronged approach is essential, including engaging health-care leaders and educators in LMICs to recognise context-specific challenges, and developing shared visions and evidence-based strategies to empower the health-care community to transform health education in a meaningful way, prioritising climate-related competencies. Moreover, intersectoral policies should be strengthened, emphasising how health-care providers can contribute to national climate action plans, which would inform the ecoliteracy and competency gaps to be addressed among future health-care leaders in their respective contexts. Local and global collaborations to exchange knowledge and build partnerships for climate education and action might help decolonise planetary health in LMICs, thereby enabling health-care professionals to actualise their roles in protecting population health and alleviating climate-related health disparities.5Sainsbury P Charlesworth K Madden L Capon A Stewart G Pencheon D Climate change is a health issue: what can doctors do?.Intern Med J. 2019; 49: 1044-1048Crossref PubMed Scopus (13) Google Scholar We declare no competing interests.