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 Positive Centre is convening a taskforce to explore how health-focused framings of climate change adaptation and mitigation can support net-positive outcomes for human health, the environment, and society. Through a programme of 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.
In working towards a conceptual foundation and guiding principles that support efforts to understand, evaluate and build net-positive solutions, we 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. As well as critical and social science approaches to foregrounding narratives in policy and science literature, storytelling, arts and creative practices will be crucial in the work of forging 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 alleviating interconnected environmental, social, and health inequalities in the UK that are being exacerbated by climate change. We will explore how to ameliorate these inequalities through ‘net-positive’ solutions, drawing from examples of best practice in adaptation and mitigation with co-beneficial health, social and environmental outcomes. The perspectives and experiences of people disproportionately affected by climate change and health inequalities will be foregrounded throughout, aligning with 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 guidelines towards more effective, equitable climate action. Taskforce outputs will inform Net Positive Centre research, policy engagement, and collaborative projects. Together, this work will contribute to the development of ‘net-positive’, action-oriented approaches that engage with complexity while motivating possibilities of mitigation and adaptation, care and repair.
Key people
