Accelerating Country-Led Action on Climate x Health
Summary
In 2025, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) and partners committed to the launch of a $50 million Catalytic Fund for Climate x Health. By 2029, the Catalytic Fund will provide financing and technical support for country-led climate-health interventions to protect against the impacts of climate change on human health and progress made in combating HIV, TB, malaria, and other infectious diseases. The Climate x Health Catalytic Fund was conceived in response to increasing demand from countries for the Global Fund to address climate-driven impacts on health. To mitigate the risks that countries are identifying and the constraints they face, innovation, partnership, and financing must be combined to support country- and equity-led commitments and action. The Catalytic Fund has been designed to leverage existing ways of working while also increasing access to new technical support, building local capacity, and mobilizing partnerships with the largest financiers to support countries to accelerate their action against the impacts of climate change on health.
Approach
In 2025, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) commits to launching a new $50 million catalytic fund for climate x health action. The Climate x Health Catalytic Fund (Catalytic Fund) aims to assist the most vulnerable countries in tackling climate change’s immediate and anticipated effects on health and health systems. It will enable Ministries of Health, communities, and other national stakeholders to create and prioritize locally-led, country-owned strategies for safeguarding health against the increasing impacts of climate change and to develop strong financing proposals.
To address climate-related health risks, the Catalytic Fund merges innovation, partnerships, and funding with country-led commitments. By 2026, the Catalytic Fund will finance country-led climate-health interventions to protect against the impacts of climate change on human health and progress made in combating HIV, TB, malaria, and other infectious diseases. In addition to financing, the Catalytic Fund will enhance climate-health capacity in an estimated 10-12 countries through access to a Technical Assistance Facility, utilizing global science, tools, and technologies, and strengthening in-country capacities in climate-health science, policy, and finance. It will promote ambitious, evidence-based programming to improve strategic climate and health interventions.
The Climate x Health Catalytic Fund leverages the Global Fund’s catalytic fund mechanism and is guided by the CxH Investment Framework announced at COP28 to advance climate-related disaster risk management, build climate-resilient health systems, accelerate climate-sensitive disease control, and promote low-carbon, environmentally sustainable health systems. In line with the Global Fund’s existing processes, investments will be country-driven, coordinated by the Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) , aligning stakeholders with the CxH Investment Framework.
The Fund will work with existing Global Fund partners such as the World Health Organization, Green Climate Fund, and World Bank, and engage with G7/G20 governments, scientific institutions, and community-based organizations in over 120 low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to shape and align investments through the fund, as well as ensure oversight and accountability of supported activities.
Action Plan
Preparation Phase (2025) Q1 2025 – Q2 2025
CxH Launch and implementation setup
Country analysis, selection, consultation, approval processes, and grant disbursement
Technical Assistance set up
Grant Implementation Cycle (2025-2028) Q2 2025 – Q4 2026
Country grant implementation
Technical assistance in up to 12 countries
Evaluation & transition into the next grant cycle (Grant Cycle 8) (2026-2028)
Background
Climate change represents a significant health challenge, destabilizing health systems, exacerbating inequities, and threatening the well-being of communities globally. It particularly affects the poorest and most vulnerable, including women and children, risking severe consequences without focused intervention.
There are stark inequities in the burden of climate health risks, the capacity for adaptation, and the allocation of financial resources, with the most severe impacts felt by low- and middle-income countries and marginalized communities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that 3.3 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change, which is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths annually between 2030 and 2050. Rising emissions will further exacerbate health risks and impact health infrastructure and programs.
Climate change poses a significant threat to the mission of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund) to combat these diseases and to build resilient health systems. The Global Fund’s allocation of 71% of its investments for 2023-2025 to the 50 most climate-vulnerable countries, including 87% of its malaria funding, highlights the overlap between disease vulnerability and climate change.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
With the launch of the Climate and Health Catalytic Fund, the Global Fund seeks to galvanize increased investments in climate and health to match the scale of need. The Catalytic Fund will provide the financing and technical assistance to spur early action and serve as a springboard to increase investments and resources for country-led climate and health programming within the next Global Fund replenishment cycle., The Global Fund, through the Climate x Health Catalytic Fund, will provide, for the first time, a mechanism for private-sector funding to support country-led action for climate and health outcomes and health systems. It will provide the ability to deploy resources and contributions to countries through a participatory process that brings together country stakeholders to inform and define their own priorities for country financing and action.