Health and Climate Narratives Taskforce
How do the ways we talk about climate change and health shape the actions we take? Who is seen as responsible for managing climate-related health risks, and over what timescales? And how might different evidence and stories about climate and health open up possibilities for more just and sustainable futures?
The Net+ Centre will convene a taskforce to explore how health-focused framings of climate change adaptation and mitigation can support net-positive outcomes for people’s health, environment, and society. Through rapid evidence reviews and participatory workshops running throughout 2026, the taskforce will bring together a diverse community of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working at the intersection of climate and health.
The Task Force will work towards a conceptual foundation and guiding principles that support efforts to understand, evaluate and build net-positive solutions. This will explore four cross-cutting themes: responsibility, time, evidence, and storytelling. These reviews will inform dialogue with key stakeholders and shed light on the concepts and values that shape how climate-related health risks are defined, who is expected to act, and what kinds of futures are seen as possible and actionable. Alongside critical and social science approaches to making narratives more prominent in policy and science literature, storytelling, arts and creative practices will be crucial in the work of building communities, and visualising and communicating new ideas and concepts, that can inspire action across the Net Positive Centre and beyond.
A central focus of the taskforce is on addressing interconnected environmental, social, and health inequalities in the UK that are being worsened by climate change. We will explore how to reduce these inequalities through ‘net-positive’ solutions, drawing from examples of best practice where adaptation and mitigation has created combined health, social and environmental benefits. The perspectives and experiences of people disproportionately affected by climate change and health inequalities will be prioritised throughout, reflecting the Centre’s commitment to understanding and addressing unequal climate-related health outcomes.
By bringing together relevant evidence and cross-sector expertise, the taskforce will generate conceptual insights and guidance for more effective, equitable climate action. Taskforce outputs will inform Net+ Centre research, policy engagement, and collaborative projects. Together, this will help develop ‘net-positive’ action-oriented approaches that engage with complexity while opening up possibilities of mitigation and adaptation, care and repair.
Key people
