In 2010, the Public Health Institute established the Center for Climate Change & Health  to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on human health, and to promote opportunities to improve health through strategies to address climate change.

Although several PHI programs and initiatives have been working in the climate change space for years, the Center provides a sharpened focus and acts as a hub to leverage the leadership and expertise within PHI, as well as across the broader public health community. As a domestic and global non-profit public health organization, PHI works at the local, state, regional, national and global levels, and its work on climate change is no different.

With extensive programs, partnerships and networks in its home state of California, the Center builds upon California’s leadership in addressing climate change to inform national approaches, and builds partnerships with other leaders and leading cities, states and regions to do so.

Globally, PHI has also long been a United Nations Economic and Social Council-accredited organization, and participates regularly in UN meetings and groups, including the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Population and Development and the Open Ended Working Group on Post-2015. The Center and PHI programs draw the connections between climate change and health within these groups and at the annual UN Climate Change Conferences.

At all levels, PHI and its Center for Climate Change & Health promote adaptation and mitigation strategies that effectively address the impacts of climate change on health, while at the same time generating co-benefits for the health, agriculture, transport, development and energy sectors.