Columbia’s Public Health School launches Climate & Health Center

(Press-News.org) In response to the worsening climate crisis, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is launching the Center for Achieving Resilience in Climate and Health (C-ARCH) to be a global solutions lab for responding to and mitigating the manifold detrimental health impacts of climate change while building adaptive capacity.

C-ARCH’s team of climate and health scientists will forge partnerships with governments and communities worldwide to pursue rigorous research to identify the specific ways climate extremes harm health; design, deploy, and evaluate evidence-based solutions to prevent and respond to these harms; and train generations of scientists across sectors to lead this response. They will assess how current solutions—such as early warning systems and cooling centers for communities vulnerable to heat extremes or drought-resistant crops to help protect food security—map onto specific situations; they will then collaborate with local partners to devise new tailored approaches.

Leaders in Climate and Health

C-ARCH builds on 20 years of leadership on climate and health at Columbia Mailman, whose scientists have documented links between climate change and unwanted health outcomes—from extreme weather to food insecurity, wildfire smoke, mental health impacts, and more. Columbia Mailman researchers have studied solutions like low-emissions stoves and controlled burning to lower wildfire risk, and provided research assessing the health benefits of steps to cut CO2 emissions like low-emissions buses.

In 2008, Columbia Mailman was the first U.S. school of public health to create a climate and health program to support research and education in the nascent field. In 2017, the School launched the Global Center for Climate and Health Education (GCCHE), which has grown to have a membership of more than 200 health professions schools and programs worldwide today. In 2024, Columbia Mailman launched CHART (Climate and Health: Action and Research for Transformational Change), a National Institutes of Health-funded center to build research capacity and catalyze and coordinate climate and health research.

C-ARCH is co-led by Kiros Berhane, PhD, the Cynthia and Robert Citrone-Roslyn and Leslie Goldstein Professor and Chair of Biostatistics and a leader in developing new scientific methods in environmental health research, and Darby Jack, PhD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences, who has studied the health effects of air pollution and policies to accelerate clean household energy transitions in New York City, Ghana, and elsewhere around the world. Berhane and Jack are both principal investigators on a research capacity building effort in Eastern Africa focused on the health impacts of climate change and other environmental hazards.

An Urgent Need for Solutions

The launch of C-ARCH comes as Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service, recently concluded(link is external and opens in a new window) that 2024 was the first year global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“There is overwhelming evidence to support the reality of climate change and its many deleterious effects on human health, direct and indirect. What is far from clear is how can societies most effectively safeguard and ultimately improve health in the face of climate change,” says Berhane. “C-ARCH is interested in practical solutions. We will be identifying specific ways to build resilience even as climate change intensifies and our understanding of what the coming years may bring.”

“We envision a world where every community—regardless of location or wealth—thrives in the face of a changing climate. Through rigorous research and long-term partnerships, C-ARCH will help build a future where the health impacts of climate change are understood and overcome,” Jack adds. “We will prioritize marginalized communities who bear the brunt of climate impacts and are at the forefront of resilience efforts.”

Research, Training, Collaboration

C-ARCH will initially focus on several key research areas: uncovering causal pathways linking climate stressors to health; addressing behavioral, mental health and worker productivity impacts; leveraging AI and other advanced data science tools; developing tangible solutions, including policies; and expanding global reach—particularly in low-income countries where climate impacts are severe and adaptive capacity is limited.

This year, C-ARCH will roll out a series of core activities, including a seminar series, a pilot grants program, and monthly convenings of faculty to foster collaboration across Columbia Mailman, CHART, GCCEH, the Columbia Climate School, and beyond.

“By combining cutting-edge science with deep community engagement, we aim to not only understand the health impacts of climate change but also to equip policymakers and communities with the tools they need to build a healthier, more resilient future,” Berhane says.

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