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Connecting Climate Minds: a shared vision for the climate change and mental health field

Nature Mental Health volume 2, pages 121–125 (2024)Cite this article

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Research in the area of climate change and mental health is increasing but the field remains disconnected, unequal and siloed (Box 1). The Connecting Climate Minds project, funded by Wellcome, aims to address this by cultivating a connected, supported and engaged community of practice on a global scale to create an actionable research agenda on climate change and mental health.

The impact of climate change on mental health has been noted by a small pool of academics and practitioners for more than a decade. Publications have advocated for systems thinking approaches that join the dots between temperature rises and chronic and extreme weather events with disaster mental health literature12. Researchers and advocates have pointed to the effects of resulting disruptions to health systems, food and water security, cultures and livelihoods on the global mental health burden1. The Lancet commission on global mental health and sustainable development noted in 2018 that climate change threatened work towards creating an environment that fosters mental health and wellbeing for all13. However, until recently, research explicitly identified at the ‘climate change and mental health’ nexus remained relatively scant. A 2021 review of literature explicitly on climate change and mental health found only 120 papers, with the first being published in 20077. Similarly, another review noted that although a search of PubMed for the decade to 2021 returns 54,875 papers for ‘climate change’ and 284,055 for ‘mental health’, only 478 are returned for both terms6.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: Structure of the RCoP.
Fig. 3

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Emma L. Lawrance, Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Omnia El Omrani, Emma Lawrance, David Nabarro, Nienke Meinsma & Peter Howitt

  2. Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Emma L. Lawrance, Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Omnia El Omrani, Emma Lawrance, Friederike Otto & Neil Jennings

  3. Mental Health Innovations, London, UK

    Emma L. Lawrance

  4. Wellcome, London, UK

    Alessandro Massazza, Irini Pantelidou, Niall Boyce, Madeleine Thomson, Chloe Watson & Rachel Hore

  5. Ethnicity and Health Unit, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Mala Rao

  6. School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Mala Rao

  7. Imperial Projects, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Darius Sakalauskas

  8. Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, Dublin, Ireland

    Margot Curl

  9. Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, Oxford, UK

    Meghan Bailey

  10. Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, New York, NY, USA

    Pablo Suarez

  11. Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

    Renate Meyer

  12. IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Shona Whitton

  13. Planetary and Global Health Program, St Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine-William H. Quasha Memorial (SLMCCM-WHQM), Quezon City, The Philippines

    Renzo R. Guinto & John Jamir Benzon Aruta

  14. De La Salle University, Manila, The Philippines

    John Jamir Benzon Aruta

  15. The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

    Sandeep Maharaj

  16. Planetary Health Alliance, Boston, MA, USA

    Sandeep Maharaj

  17. The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados

    Natalie Greaves

  18. Claretian University of Nigeria, Nekede, Nigeria

    Kenneth Yongabi Anchang

  19. Climate Mental Health Network, Washington, DC, USA

    Lian Zeitz & Sarah Newman

  20. Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Britt Wray

  21. SustyVibes, Lagos, Nigeria

    Jennifer Uchendu, Hope Lekwa & Ayomide Olude

  22. Force of Nature, London, UK

    Sacha Wright

Authors
  1. Emma L. Lawrance
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  2. Alessandro Massazza
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  3. Irini Pantelidou
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  4. Jessica Newberry Le Vay
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  5. Omnia El Omrani
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Consortia

Connecting Climate Minds Core Team

  • Imperial College London

    • Emma Lawrance
    • , Jessica Newberry Le Vay
    • , Omnia El Omrani
    • , David Nabarro
    • , Friederike Otto
    • , Neil Jennings
    • , Mala Rao
    • , Nienke Meinsma
    • , Peter Howitt
    •  & Darius Sakalauskas

  • Red Cross Red Crescent

    • Margot Curl
    • , Meghan Bailey
    • , Pablo Suarez
    • , Renate Meyer
    •  & Shona Whitton

  • Regional Community Development Team

    • Renzo R. Guinto
    • , John Jamir Benzon Aruta
    • , Sandeep Maharaj
    • , Natalie Greaves
    •  & Kenneth Yongabi Anchang

  • Lived Experience Working Group

    • Lian Zeitz
    • , Britt Wray
    • , Sarah Newman
    • , Jennifer Uchendu
    • , Hope Lekwa
    • , Ayomide Olude
    •  & Sacha Wright

  • Wellcome

    • Alessandro Massazza
    • , Irini Pantelidou
    • , Niall Boyce
    • , Madeleine Thomson
    • , Chloe Watson
    •  & Rachel Hore

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alessandro Massazza or Irini Pantelidou.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.M. and I.P. were employed by Wellcome, the funder of Connecting Climate Minds, at the time of writing. O.E.O., J.N.L.V., E.L. and all other Connecting Climate Minds authors, were the recipients of funding from Wellcome for the Connecting Climate Minds project.

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Lawrance, E.L., Massazza, A., Pantelidou, I. et al. Connecting Climate Minds: a shared vision for the climate change and mental health field. Nat. Mental Health 2, 121–125 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00196-9

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