Building a climate-smart health workforce: Insights for policy and practice
5 November 2025
| Journal article
Overview
Climate change is intensifying health risks across Europe and placing additional pressure on already strained health systems. Building a climate‑smart health and care workforce is essential for strengthening resilience, advancing mitigation and promoting health equity. This article outlines how health promotion, prevention and ‘green skills’ development can support low‑carbon, climate‑resilient care. Drawing on recent evidence from the BeWell initiative, it highlights the macro‑, meso‑ and micro‑level actions needed to integrate climate‑health competencies into education, organisational practice and communication. Coordinated EU‑level efforts are required to scale these approaches and align workforce development with Europe’s broader climate and skills agendas.
WHO Team
European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Editors
Andrea E. Schmidt, Gabriella Sutton, Alison Maassen, Katharina Brugger, Ilonka Horváth, Michelle Falkenbach, Gemma A. Williams, Art van Schaaijk, Ronald Batenburg and Matthias Wismar
Copyright
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO