The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to renew the two institutions’ joint commitment to tackle public health challenges emerging from rising temperatures and other threats posed by climate change.

The agreement coincides with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, and the need to ensure that countries with weak or inadequate health infrastructure receive support to protect human health and build climate resilience to respond to such threats.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, explained, “Many people experience climate change through the impacts on their health, from air pollution and heatwaves to the contamination of drinking water from extreme weather events—if together and with many partners we can realize the world’s climate goals we can also play our role in providing a major health boost to billions of people.”