Healthy & Climate Resilient Communities

Climate change threatens our health in many ways. It is increasing extreme weather events such as floods, fire weather, heatwaves, and storms. It is also impacting the determinants of good health such as our environment, food systems, community cohesion, economics, mental health, and housing. Even if we stopped all emissions tomorrow, the climate will continue to change for many years, if not decades. This makes emissions reductions and resilience building critical.

Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation supports work that connects community resilience, climate change action, and health equity. We support work that seeks systems approaches to strengthening community capacities to become more self-determining, socially connected, regenerative, and adaptive.

The Foundation's support is focused on:

• Strengthening community capacities to advance health equity through climate change mitigation and adaptation combined
• Urban leaders supporting community networks focused on equitable health and resilience
• Community-driven, nature-based projects that support health and climate resilience
• Cross-sector collaborations that support equitable disaster resilience, with a particular focus on heat

Increasing demand for agricultural products, urban sprawl, climate change and a range of other threatening processes are undermining the security, health, and sustainability of our food system.

Food production and consumption impacts biodiversity, aquatic and terrestrial resources, climate and a range of other critically important systems.

The food system can also produce less than ideal social outcomes, including limiting access to affordable, nutritious food.

The Foundation's support is focused on:

• Research to better understand the issues threatening the security, health, and sustainability of the food system.
• Evidence-based solutions and pathways to a secure, healthy, resilient, and sustainable food system.
• Research and demonstration projects that influence or produce food system security, health, resilience, and sustainability outcomes.
• First Nations' and locally-led food enterprises and capacities
• Demonstration of more sustainable, low-carbon urban agricultural approaches.

The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) describes climate change as the 'greatest challenge to human health globally', affecting determinants of health including a healthy environment, food security, community cohesion, and housing.

Community service and health organisations are on the frontlines of the health implications of climate change. Because they understand determinants of health and are deeply connected with the communities they serve, they are critical actors in climate resilience. Given health is influenced by so many factors that lie outside the community and health sectors, improving health equity requires collaborative, systemic action.

The Foundation's support is focused on:

• Increasing the capabilities of community and health organisations to understand and respond to the health implications of climate change.
• Building community awareness and capabilities regarding climate and health to prevent and alleviate adverse health outcomes.
• Research that leads to improved policy, focusing on the population health benefits of proactive climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• Innovative collaborations between community, health, and environmental organisations responding proactively to the population health implications of climate change.