Global health leaders are to launch a new and comprehensive system to improve global health resilience to the rising threats of climate change.

With tens of thousands of Europeans having died in recent months due to the effects of extreme heat and hundreds of thousands across the world the World health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with WHO Climate Change, Energy and Air Quality, has launched the Global research prioritisation and action plan on health, migration and displacement in the context of climate change.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that an estimated 2,877 people had died in the May and June heatwaves in England which indicated that 2026 will break the unwanted record for the most heat related deaths.

The record was set in 2022 with 2,985 deaths, with experts fearing August heatwaves will add to the current toll.

At the end of June WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to social media to reveal there had been more than 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded since 21 June “linked to high temperatures in Europe”.

“Heat stress is often called the ‘silent killer’ – and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures,” he said.

The WHO warned despite a growing recognition of the climate–migration–health nexus, significant evidence gaps remain regarding how mobility in the context of climate change affects health, well-being and access to care. Climate change is increasingly recognized as contributing to the drivers of migration and displacement, disproportionately affecting populations already facing vulnerabilities and limited adaptive capacity, while influencing health risks and access to services throughout the migration journey.

“Closing research gaps is a matter of equity. To achieve universal health coverage, strengthen climate resilience and advance health equity, migrant and displaced populations must not be an afterthought, they must be part of the solution from the beginning,” explained Dr Santino Severoni, head of WHO Health and Migration.

The Global Research Prioritization Exercise (GRPE), is the first thematic deep dive under WHO’s Global research agenda on health, migration and displacement, and developed to address these challenges and support WHO’s commitment to “generate robust, policy-relevant evidence for equitable and migration-inclusive health systems”. The exercise followed a structured, participatory approach, including a scoping review, stakeholder mapping, technical consultations and an online prioritization survey, engaging 59 experts from academia, policy and practice across disciplines, sectors and regions.

The GRPE identified priority research areas across three core themes – social determinants of health, universal health coverage and emergencies – alongside two cross-cutting areas: health outcomes and data, policy and interventions. It also produced a global action roadmap to guide future research, policy and practice. Key priorities identified include addressing social inequities and vulnerabilities, strengthening access to health systems and services, improving preparedness and resilience to climate-related emergencies, enhancing migration-sensitive data systems, and generating evidence on mental health, maternal and child health, chronic diseases, and the long-term impacts of climate-related mobility.

“Climate change is already affecting the health and mobility of populations around the world. Strengthening the evidence base is essential to inform effective policies and ensure that those most affected are protected through climate-resilient and equitable health systems,” said Dr Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, head of WHO Climate Change, Energy and Air Quality.

WHO said the launch reinforced a “shared commitment to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and ensure that research informs policy and practice.

“Discussions highlighted the need to break down silos across climate, health and migration sectors, strengthen migration-sensitive data systems, promote participatory and community-centred research, and translate evidence into practical policies and interventions that respond to the realities of affected populations.”