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CDC Celebrating 10 years of Climate and Health Program
#UnitedStates, October 30, 2019 – CDC’s Climate and Health Program is celebrating 10 years of supporting state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies as they prepare for the continuing health impacts of a changing climate.
In 2019 the program provided communities with new resources, tools, and peer-reviewed publications addressing the impacts of climate hazards. This work increased the nation’s preparedness to respond to the health effects of extreme temperatures, wildfires, drought, and flooding.
“Climate change is the biggest environmental health challenge of our time,” said Patrick Breysse, director of CDC’s National Center of Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. “CDC is proud of the collaborative work states, cities, counties, territories, and tribes are doing to develop and implement adaptation plans to protect at-risk populations and communities.”
The Climate and Health Program was established in 2009; in 2010, CDC awarded funding to 10 grantees through CDC’s Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative. The program is now helping 18 grantees around the nation use the five-step Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework to identify climate impacts in their communities, potential health effects associated with these impacts, and at-risk populations and locations.
“While coastal states might be worried about flooding associated with sea-level rise or a hurricane, a health department in the Southwest might be planning for heatwaves and drought. We provide them with information and data so they can develop and implement solutions that best fit their local needs,” Breysse said.
Expanded funding to address environmental health challenges
In early 2019, the Climate and Health Program extended its reach through partnerships with non-profit health organizations. These organizations provided funding for 12 new climate and health mini-grants, as well as implemented climate-adaptation strategies to reach vulnerable populations. The program now provides funding to health departments in 29 jurisdictions. Partnerships with the American Public Health Association and American Lung Association, along with those detailed below, are critical to the success of the climate and health program. These new awards range from $5,000 to $50,000 and support a variety of climate and health adaptation activities ranging from preparing for extreme heat to developing a state-wide data tool to support local adaptation planning.
In partnership with the National Indian Health Board, CDC selected four new awardees for the Climate Ready Tribes initiative. Three Tribes will be re-funded for a second year to continue their work into 2020:
- The Lummi Nation (Washington State) is developing plans to protect their community from harmful algal blooms and toxins in shellfish that are influenced by warming waters.
- The Pala Band of Mission Indians (California) is working on adaptation planning and outreach.
- The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is coordinating a regional project to monitor shellfish contamination.
- In addition, the Kaw Nation (Oklahoma) received a one-time mini-grant for a project focused on local community education and outreach related to climate and health.
These new awardees join the previous cohort:
- The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (Washington State).
- The Village of Wainwright (Alaska).
- The Blackfeet Nation (Montana).
Three additional new mini-grants to support Tribal climate and health communication needs will be awarded in December 2019.
Partnerships for environmental health
The Climate and Health Program partnered with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to award three one-time grants in early 2019 to assess climate and respiratory health issues. The grantees are San Mateo County Health, Propeller Health, and the Washington State Department of Health.
- San Mateo is assessing the magnitude and trends of asthma burden in San Mateo County and adapting the Community Health Vulnerability Index for their jurisdiction.
- Propeller Health is evaluating the impact of respiratory health communication tools on patient health, specifically mobile applications, and developing health outreach guidance to lessen impacts of asthma.
- Washington state is developing best practice guidance on wildfire communications outreach and testing the utility of low-cost air quality sensors during wildfires.
Washington state also received an additional grant from CDC in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to aid development of regional climate and health profiles and climate-related risk communication efforts.
CDC’s Climate and Health Program also worked with the National Association of County and City Health Officials to award two mini-grants to support local adaptation efforts:
- The Boston Public Health Commission developed heat awareness materials and translated them into 10 languages to assist a wide range of communities across the city.
- The Marquette County Health Department (Michigan) developed a “Public Health Response to Flooding Disasters” plan to protect their population from increasing extreme rain events.
In partnership with the National Environmental Health Association, CDC awarded two additional climate and health mini-grants with a focus on data accessibility:
- The Minnesota Department of Health developed an online climate and health vulnerability assessment tool to allow communities across the state to visualize and analyze health, climate, and environmental data to aid planning and adaptation.
- Clackamas County Public Health (Oregon) partnered with neighboring counties (Multnomah County Health Department and Washington County Public Health) to develop a comprehensive climate change and health impact assessment report and develop an accompanying data visualization tool for the Portland metropolitan region.
The Climate and Health Program’s work extends far beyond grants to health departments. In March 2020, the program will host a science symposium featuring presentations from researchers conducting cutting-edge climate and health work. The symposium will highlight CDC’s internal science activities and new resources and tools for communities. We will also reflect on the Climate and Health Program’s past accomplishments and discuss our vision for the program’s future.
For additional information about the 10th anniversary or the Climate and Health Program, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/default.htm.
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Haiti, December 4, 2025 – For the first time in nearly a decade, Haiti is taking concrete steps toward holding national elections — and the most visible sign came this week with confirmation that more than 1,300 polling centers are being readied across nine departments. After years of political paralysis and escalating gang rule, the preparation of voting sites is the clearest signal yet that Haiti may finally be inching back toward democratic governance.
According to Haitian electoral authorities, 1,309 voting centers have been identified and are now being assessed for accessibility, staffing,
and security. These centers form the backbone of a new electoral plan that has been quietly but steadily advancing since early November, when officials submitted a draft elections calendar. That calendar marks August 30, 2026 as the date for Haiti’s first-round general elections — the first since 2016. A second round is tentatively set for December 6, 2026, with a new president expected to be sworn in on February 7, 2027, restoring the constitutional timeline that Haiti has missed for years.
The progress accelerated on December 2, 2025, when Haiti’s transitional presidential council formally adopted a new electoral law — a prerequisite for launching the process. International partners, including CARICOM, the United States, Canada, and the United Nations, have long pressed Haiti to move toward elections, but repeated security collapses made even basic preparations impossible.
The challenge now is enormous. The United Nations estimates that gangs currently control around 90 percent of Port-au-Prince, and violence continues in key areas targeted for polling. Attacks in regions like Artibonite — where voting centers are being prepared — highlight the fragile reality on the ground. Yet Haitian officials insist that stabilisation efforts led by the transitional government and international support missions will allow the election machinery to keep moving.
Still, the symbolism of seeing polling centers mapped, listed, and prepared cannot be overstated. For a population that has lived through presidential assassinations, mass displacement, gang takeovers, and repeated postponements, the simple act of preparing schools and buildings for voting feels like a long-overdue return to civic possibility.
Haiti is nowhere near ready to vote today — but for the first time in years, the infrastructure of democracy is being rebuilt, room by room, center by center.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE
NEW YORK (October 17, 2025) — A new United Nations report has confirmed what many developing nations already know: climate change is punishing the poor first and hardest. Nearly 80 percent of the world’s 1.1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty — about 887 million individuals — live in regions directly exposed to extreme heat, flooding, drought, or air pollution.
The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), calls the findings “a wake-up call before COP30.” It’s the first time global poverty and climate-hazard data have been overlaid, revealing how environmental stress and social deprivation now reinforce one another.
A World Under Double Strain
The report, titled Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards, finds that among the world’s poorest, 651 million people face two or more climate hazards simultaneously, and 309 million confront three or four at once. The most widespread threats are extreme heat (affecting 608 million) and air pollution (577 million). Flood-prone areas house 465 million poor people, while 207 million live in drought-affected zones.
“These individuals live under a triple or quadruple burden,” said UNDP’s Acting Administrator Haoliang Xu. “To fight global poverty, we must confront the climate risks endangering nearly 900 million people.”
The Geography of Risk
The pressure points are clear. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the world’s epicentres of climate-linked poverty, hosting 380
million and 344 million vulnerable people respectively. In South Asia, a staggering 99 percent of the poor are exposed to one or more climate shocks, with 92 percent facing two or more.
The Caribbean and small-island developing states weren’t individually ranked but are highlighted as especially exposed — combining low-lying geographies, fragile ecosystems, and high dependence on tourism. Analysts say the MPI’s message is unmistakable: without climate-resilient development, hard-won progress could unravel overnight.
The Rich-Poor Divide Deepens
Lower-middle-income nations shoulder the greatest burden, with 548 million poor people exposed to at least one hazard and 470 million to two or more. “Countries with the highest levels of poverty today are projected to face the steepest temperature increases by the end of the century,” said Pedro Conceição, Director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office.
That projection underscores why the Caribbean, Africa, and parts of Asia argue that wealthy nations must help fund climate adaptation, debt relief, and just-transition mechanisms.
From Recognition to Action
The UNDP urges world leaders gathering next month for COP30 in Brazil to align climate commitments with poverty reduction strategies — strengthening local adaptation, scaling climate finance, and embedding environmental resilience into every development plan.
“The crisis is shared, but the capacity to respond isn’t,” the report concludes. “Without redistribution, cooperation, and climate-resilient policy, the world’s poorest will remain trapped between heatwaves and hunger.”
Why It Matters for the Caribbean
For island nations like The Bahamas, Barbados, and Turks & Caicos, the MPI’s findings hit home. Even where income levels are higher, inequality and geographic exposure magnify the risk: a single hurricane season can wipe out years of economic gains. The message to regional policymakers is clear — social protection, infrastructure, and environmental defence are no longer separate issues; they’re survival strategies.
As the world counts down to COP30, the UNDP’s data doesn’t just measure poverty — it maps who the planet is failing first.
