Climate and Health

CSIS works to build bipartisan understanding and consensus around climate’s impacts on global health and clearly and concretely define U.S. foreign policy priorities in climate and health.

CSIS Alliance Climate and Health Working Group
 

The CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security launched a working group on climate and health in October 2024. Its ambitious, one-year mandate was to deepen bipartisan understanding of the evolving impacts of climate on health; review the steps taken by the U.S. government and other governments and international bodies to adapt and better protect the health and well-being of vulnerable populations; and sketch a concrete vision for a sustainable U.S. national security approach that could draw enduring political support from across the aisle—in the executive branch, Congress, and beyond.

By mid-2025, the CSIS Alliance working group concluded that a pragmatic, promising course is to focus on the domestic health implications of extreme heat and heat-associated extreme weather events. The negative health, social, and economic effects of extreme heat have become a common, lived experience among broad sectors of the American public, cutting across income, racial, ideological, and geographic lines. In its November 2025 report, the working group argues that three actions lay the foundation of a strategy to better protect Americans, strengthen preparedness against heat waves and extreme weather events, and protect U.S. economic and national interests: the launch of a high-level bipartisan panel, the establishment of a data consortium, and the strengthening of essential core federal functions.

The working group is co-chaired by J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director, CSIS Global Health Policy Center and Katherine E. Bliss, Director, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience and Senior Fellow, CSIS Global Health Policy Center.

The CSIS Alliance Climate and Health Working Group is made possible through support from the Wellcome Trust and GSK. 

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Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images

Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images

Three Steps to Protect the United States Against Extreme Heat

The CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security Working Group on Climate and Health recommends urgent action on extreme heat to protect Americans, strengthen preparedness against heat waves and extreme weather events, and ensure U.S. economic and national security.

Brief by J. Stephen Morrison, Katherine E. Bliss, and Christina E. Zielke — November 5, 2025

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Three Steps to Protect the United States Against Extreme Heat

The CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security Working Group on Climate and Health recommends urgent action on extreme heat to protect Americans, strengthen preparedness against heat waves and extreme weather events, and ensure U.S. economic and national security.

Brief by J. Stephen Morrison, Katherine E. Bliss, and Christina E. Zielke — November 5, 2025

The CommonHealth

CommonHealth Live! with Assistant Secretary Loyce Pace

In the eighth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison sits down with Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Podcast Episode by J. Stephen Morrison — February 24, 2025

The CommonHealth
Audio Briefs

The Health-Climate-Security Triad

An audio version of “The Health-Climate-Security Triad,” a new commentary by CSIS's J. Stephen Morrison and Katherine E. Bliss. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by J. Stephen Morrison and Katherine E. Bliss — January 31, 2025

Audio Briefs

The Health-Climate-Security Triad

Imperiled health is the human face of climate change. The climate crisis is increasingly recognized as a health crisis, marked by rising mortality, costly illnesses, and heightened risks of new biological pathogens that together threaten U.S. national security interests.

Commentary by J. Stephen Morrison and Katherine E. Bliss — January 31, 2025

The CommonHealth

CommonHealth Live! with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

In this episode of the CommonHealth Live!, Katherine E. Bliss sits down with Stacy Aguilera-Peterson, Deputy Director for Research, U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Josh Glasser, Assistant Director for Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance & Integrated Health Innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 

Podcast Episode by Katherine E. Bliss — January 7, 2025

The CommonHealth

CommonHealth Live! with Assistant Secretary Loyce Pace

In the eighth episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, J. Stephen Morrison will sit down with Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Event — December 10, 2024

Assistant Secretary Loyce Pace

J. Stephen Morrison sat down with Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss the newly released HHS Global Strategy and its implications for U.S. climate and health policy. 

Transcript — December 10, 2024

The CommonHealth

CommonHealth Live! with Dr. John Balbus

In the seventh episode of the CommonHealth Live! series, Katherine E. Bliss will sit down with Dr. John Balbus, Director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Podcast Episode by Katherine E. Bliss — November 19, 2024

The CommonHealth