limate change impacts our mental health both directly and indirectly—directly as global publics cope with the trauma of sudden climate events, and indirectly as the more we learn about climate change, the more we worry. The lack of progress in global climate action is distressing, particularly for youth and children, and raises concerns for future generations. Inevitably, climate change is affecting the environment and our wellbeing. Yet, even apart from the impact of climate change on mental health systems around the world, governments are only allocating an average of 2% of health budgets to mental health. Climate change will likely intensify the situation due to the dearth of effective services and the overarching stigma connected to mental health which augments the suffering of those distressed—especially in underserved settings.
Addressing these complex challenges will require a multifaceted approach that includes empowering youth and adults with the knowledge and skills needed to act. To craft better collaborative learning ecosystems, we must integrate climate education into the existing school curriculum. In 2025, the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) will consider evaluating the extent of 15-year-olds' comprehension of climate change and their abilities to tackle climate challenges at both local and global levels. However, teaching climate change in schools would raise another fundamental question. Would we be scaring them with these facts about climate change? Such emotional effects can’t be neglected. This necessitates smart strategies to equip young individuals with the psychological resilience to confront the escalating risks.
Educators, researchers, and pedagogical experts are pioneering innovative methods for teaching climate change. These innovative approaches encourage experiential learning—connecting students with scientists and driving group projects focused on pro-environmental actions like community cleanups or planting trees in their local environments. Such approaches must be facilitated via partnering between educational institutions, community organizations, mental health care institutions, and local businesses. They need to provide an open space for children, teachers, parents, mental health professionals, and other community members to share their feelings about the future of the planet as well as learn about the climate facts and encourage collective actions that would help mitigate climate change. It would create effective forms of community-level and interpersonal support that are more relevant and empowering. For enabling such programs, preparing teachers and caretakers needs to be considered high in the national education planning. Climate science and knowledge about its complexities is overwhelming and rapidly expanding, and it’s no surprise that teachers and caretakers are not yet prepared to talk about the issues with children.
To foster community-level connections, reliable climate communication is vital. Such communication builds trust and cooperation among agencies, communities, scientists, and governments; promoting open dialogues, addressing diverse viewpoints, and enabling meaningful exchanges. Populations that trust their government to address climate change tend to have lower levels of concern about climate change. Community-oriented solutions such as citizen assemblies to climate action could be a potential platform to enable the two-way approach of discussing the verified climate facts to build trust among populations and sharing the evidence-based tools to support their wellbeing amidst the ongoing crisis.
Furthermore, promoting technological innovations like digital and AI tools is another promising way to support addressing the climate impacts on mental health. Based on the lessons learned from COVID-19, innovative solutions have been developed in the last years to support our wellbeing. Providing mental health care through online tools can bridge gaps in accessing support, especially in remote areas, and decrease stigma-related barriers. Additionally, these tools could train care providers and create educational programs that promote good mental health practices in a cost-effective manner, considering the limited global mental health budgets.
Natural language processing tools could predict mental health conditions through language and images in social media. Social media usage is currently over four billion people worldwide, and has been predicted to increase to almost six billion in 2027. Public-private partnerships can leverage such predictive analytics for early detection, interventions, and national policies. Importantly, though, we must identify solutions that have the potential for long-term positive impacts and encourage such with investment in research and development, policy incentives and regulations, and multi-stakeholder collaborations.
Addressing the mental health impacts of climate change is a significant challenge, but also a significant opportunity for public health and community empowerment. Building on global commitments of climate action decision platforms such as COP can help to accelerate addressing climate risks on mental health and increase awareness of the issue. The upcoming COP28 will hold the first ever Health Day that aims to build a consensus to prioritize actions for the health system’s responses to climate change by pairing with financing commitments for implementation. By considering and integrating mental health in climate discussions and climate action planning, we can foster a more compassionate, resilient approach that empowers both individuals and societies to create a sustainable future.
Editors’ Note: This article was included in our COP 28 special edition, which was published on November 21, 2023, and which you can find here. All articles were written with that publication time frame in mind.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University.
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The Mental Health Challenge of Climate Change
November 27, 2023
Climate change has a major impact on our mental health, directly and indirectly. Yet governments allocate only around 2% of their health budgets to mental health, a number that will need to increase as climate change intensifies, write Sana Okamoto and Nidhi Nagabhatla.
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limate change impacts our mental health both directly and indirectly—directly as global publics cope with the trauma of sudden climate events, and indirectly as the more we learn about climate change, the more we worry. The lack of progress in global climate action is distressing, particularly for youth and children, and raises concerns for future generations. Inevitably, climate change is affecting the environment and our wellbeing. Yet, even apart from the impact of climate change on mental health systems around the world, governments are only allocating an average of 2% of health budgets to mental health. Climate change will likely intensify the situation due to the dearth of effective services and the overarching stigma connected to mental health which augments the suffering of those distressed—especially in underserved settings.
Addressing these complex challenges will require a multifaceted approach that includes empowering youth and adults with the knowledge and skills needed to act. To craft better collaborative learning ecosystems, we must integrate climate education into the existing school curriculum. In 2025, the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) will consider evaluating the extent of 15-year-olds' comprehension of climate change and their abilities to tackle climate challenges at both local and global levels. However, teaching climate change in schools would raise another fundamental question. Would we be scaring them with these facts about climate change? Such emotional effects can’t be neglected. This necessitates smart strategies to equip young individuals with the psychological resilience to confront the escalating risks.
Educators, researchers, and pedagogical experts are pioneering innovative methods for teaching climate change. These innovative approaches encourage experiential learning—connecting students with scientists and driving group projects focused on pro-environmental actions like community cleanups or planting trees in their local environments. Such approaches must be facilitated via partnering between educational institutions, community organizations, mental health care institutions, and local businesses. They need to provide an open space for children, teachers, parents, mental health professionals, and other community members to share their feelings about the future of the planet as well as learn about the climate facts and encourage collective actions that would help mitigate climate change. It would create effective forms of community-level and interpersonal support that are more relevant and empowering. For enabling such programs, preparing teachers and caretakers needs to be considered high in the national education planning. Climate science and knowledge about its complexities is overwhelming and rapidly expanding, and it’s no surprise that teachers and caretakers are not yet prepared to talk about the issues with children.
To foster community-level connections, reliable climate communication is vital. Such communication builds trust and cooperation among agencies, communities, scientists, and governments; promoting open dialogues, addressing diverse viewpoints, and enabling meaningful exchanges. Populations that trust their government to address climate change tend to have lower levels of concern about climate change. Community-oriented solutions such as citizen assemblies to climate action could be a potential platform to enable the two-way approach of discussing the verified climate facts to build trust among populations and sharing the evidence-based tools to support their wellbeing amidst the ongoing crisis.
Furthermore, promoting technological innovations like digital and AI tools is another promising way to support addressing the climate impacts on mental health. Based on the lessons learned from COVID-19, innovative solutions have been developed in the last years to support our wellbeing. Providing mental health care through online tools can bridge gaps in accessing support, especially in remote areas, and decrease stigma-related barriers. Additionally, these tools could train care providers and create educational programs that promote good mental health practices in a cost-effective manner, considering the limited global mental health budgets.
Natural language processing tools could predict mental health conditions through language and images in social media. Social media usage is currently over four billion people worldwide, and has been predicted to increase to almost six billion in 2027. Public-private partnerships can leverage such predictive analytics for early detection, interventions, and national policies. Importantly, though, we must identify solutions that have the potential for long-term positive impacts and encourage such with investment in research and development, policy incentives and regulations, and multi-stakeholder collaborations.
Addressing the mental health impacts of climate change is a significant challenge, but also a significant opportunity for public health and community empowerment. Building on global commitments of climate action decision platforms such as COP can help to accelerate addressing climate risks on mental health and increase awareness of the issue. The upcoming COP28 will hold the first ever Health Day that aims to build a consensus to prioritize actions for the health system’s responses to climate change by pairing with financing commitments for implementation. By considering and integrating mental health in climate discussions and climate action planning, we can foster a more compassionate, resilient approach that empowers both individuals and societies to create a sustainable future.
Editors’ Note: This article was included in our COP 28 special edition, which was published on November 21, 2023, and which you can find here. All articles were written with that publication time frame in mind.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations University.
