Washington, DC (May 1, 2024) – Forecasting Healthy Futures, in partnership with Reaching the Last Mile, is pleased to announce its second annual Forecasting Healthy Futures Global Summit to be held 18 to 20 June, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In the leadup to the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), which will be hosted by Azerbaijan in November 2024, the Summit aims to convene diverse stakeholders from the climate and health communities to build our collective knowledge, strengthen new and existing partnerships, and identify opportunities to move together from awareness and political will to action and impact.

The cancellation of this year’s UNFCCC regional climate weeks will make it challenging for stakeholders to consider the specific impact of climate change on the health of their communities, to advance an understanding of potential solutions for climate resilient health systems, and to prepare for effective negotiations in Baku. The Summit, in June, offers a critical opportunity to facilitate discussions among stakeholders from around the world, ahead of COP29, about the links between climate change and health, including through topics such as mental health, WASH, food systems, financing, urban resilience, and the health workforce. The Global Summit will be a hybrid meeting. While critical stakeholders will gather in Baku, this format will offer registrants and journalists who are unable to attend in-person, an opportunity to participate virtually.

This year’s Summit builds on the success of last year’s inaugural Summit, which brought together a diverse group of nearly 200 leaders representing 140 organizations and more than 40 countries from government, private sector, NGOs, global finance institutions and higher education in Abu Dhabi ahead of COP28. At the opening of the Summit, His Excellency Majid Al-Suwaidi, Director General of COP28, pledged that health would be a central focus at the upcoming COP in Dubai. Speakers addressed the need to explore new partnerships and models to close gaps in climate financing, and safeguard vulnerable countries and communities against worsening weather extremes.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, during last year’s opening of the Global Summit, said: “The climate crisis affects all of us so all of us must work together to respond across borders and across sectors to build a healthier, fairer and more sustainable future for all of us.”

His Excellency Majid Al-Suwaidi, Director General of COP28, during last year’s keynote address to the Summit, said: “Given the high and growing impact of climate change on the health and wellbeing of our societies … we must work together to ensure that this is a COP of solidarity, which bridges the global North and South and brings in all stakeholders including the private sector, scientists, civil society, Indigenous peoples, women, and youth, leaving no-one behind.”

This year, under the theme From Awareness to Action, the FHF Global Summit will feature dynamic discussions and workshops on a range of key topics, including climate mitigation and urban sustainability, water and sanitation innovations, food systems and nutrition advances, trends in climate financing, mental health adaptation strategies, media strategies for climate impact, COP29 priorities and agenda, and more.  Participants expected to attend include climate and health policymakers, ministry staff in Health, Climate, Environment, and Finance, technical experts and health practitioners, leaders in business and civil society, researchers and innovators, donors and multilateral institution decision-makers, and others working at the intersection of climate and health.

Why Baku, Azerbaijan?

The FHF Global Summit strives to work closely with each year’s incoming COP Presidency and therefore holds the annual Summit in that year’s hosting country. This enables the COP Presidency planning teams to more easily attend the event, hear critical input from a broad group of stakeholders, and find inspiration for ways health can be integrated in the UNFCCC agenda.

To register for the in-person or virtual options, visit: http://www.ForecastingHealthyFuturesSummit.org.

For more details regarding the event, please visit our FAQ page.

Should you have any specific questions or require further information, feel free to reach out to us at info@forecastinghealthyfutures.org.

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About Forecasting Healthy Futures

Forecasting Healthy Futures is a global coalition of leading health and technology organizations committed to mobilizing the political will, financial resources, and innovative solutions needed to protect global health gains from the threats posed by climate change. Malaria No More convenes and leads the consortium, which was established with funding from Reaching the Last Mile.

Forecasting Health Futures’ consortium partners include Reaching the Last Mile, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), PATH, the Tableau Foundation, IBM’s Weather Company, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).