The Working Group on Health in Climate Change (HIC) was established in 2012 under the mandate of the European Environment and Health Task Force (EHTF) to promote dialogue and cooperation in the WHO European Region on protecting health from the adverse effects of climate change.

The Working Group, composed of nominated representatives of Member States and partners, provides a platform for sharing experiences and innovations, promoting tools, communicating evidence and demonstrating good practices on climate change and health action, and encourages partnership between countries and stakeholders. It advocates the integration of health considerations into national climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, and acts as a catalyst for the implementation of the commitments set out in the Declaration of the Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health – the Budapest Declaration – at international, national and subnational level.

In particular, it supports the uptake of these commitments, which strongly promote the engagement of the health sector in climate policy-making, as well as adaptation and mitigation actions by the health and health-determining sectors, to tackle the impacts of climate change on health and well-being. This involves making health systems more environmentally sustainable, decarbonized and climate-resilient.