Ahead of this year's UN climate change conference we wanted to let you know 4 ways in which MSF is responding to, and raising awareness of, climate change.
This year had seen escalating challenges and reversals in global efforts to address the intersecting crises of climate change, health, and humanitarian need. At a moment when coordinated and sustained action is urgently needed, critical funding has been decimated.
In the last year, MSF teams have responded to devastating floods in West Africa and South Sudan, repeated cyclones in Madagascar, and severe heatwaves and drought in the Horn of Africa. Across the Sahel, the deadly combination of malaria and malnutrition overwhelmed paediatric services. In Chad, MSF is now providing year-round treatment and prevention for malnutrition. Most recently, our teams have been responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in both Jamaica and Haiti.
“The climate crisis is first and foremost a health crisis. Vulnerable communities are paying with their health and their lives for a problem they did not create." - Dr. Didier-Mukeba Tshialala, MSF Medical Coordinator for West and Central Africa.
Last year was the hottest ever recorded, the tenth consecutive year of record-breaking heat. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nearly 70% of global deaths are linked to climate-related diseases. Yet climate action remains far too limited.
Here are some of the things we're doing to try and help:
- EXTREME HEAT: MSF'S EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS
Spokespeople are available.
To address gaps in meteorological monitoring where MSF works and to enable timely health action, MSF has developed it's own surveillance and forecasting tools. MSF’s Heatwave Surveillance tool will help teams gather insights on current risks of extreme temperatures and provide advance warnings for extreme heat events, with a lead time of up to 10 days, informing operational adaptation and preparedness planning. For now, the tool covers five high-risk countries—Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Syria—with some country programmes involved in an evaluation study. The tool will be particularly critical in contexts that lack national or regional heat early warning systems.
2.HONDURAN DENGUE ABROVIRUS PROJECT - fighting dengue fever with mosquitos.
Spokespeople are available.
Dengue Fever, a potentially deadly disease which affects an estimated 100–400 million people each year has increased three-fold since 2023, (WHO) in part due to climate change, with greater areas and periods of heat and humidity providing optimum breeding grounds for the mosquitos that spread it. The problem is increasingly close to home. Last year, the UK government confirmed that 904 dengue cases were reported in returning travelers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, up from 631 in 2023. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/imported-dengue-cases-reach-record-high
El Manchén, a neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, previously had some of the highest rates of dengue fever in the city. However, the team at the MSF Arbovirus Prevention Project, together with Honduran partners, hoped to reduce the number of people affected by the disease by fighting it with more mosquitos. In 2023, the team released over eight million mosquitos carrying the bacteria called Wolbachia which dramatically reduces the likelihood that the Aedes aegypti mosquitos, and their offspring, will be able to transmit arboviruses like dengue fever.
"We have promising results", said Edgard Boquín, coordinator of the project. “In a recent monitoring in June 2025, over 97% of the mosquitoes captured by our team had Wolbachia, meaning it is well established in El Manchén. For a long time we have seen how people have suffered from dengue but now we hear positive stories from the community after the Wolbachia release; this gives hope to those who have experienced dengue or have seen someone close to them get sick.”
3. POOP FACTORY - CHAD
Spokespeople are available.
https://media.msf.org/asset-management/24BHRGQOB3F9
In Aboutengue, in eastern Chad, in a refugee camp which is home to nearly 46,000 people who have fled Sudan, a new kind of factory has appeared. The Poop Factory. Behind the funny name lies a real challenge. Because Médecins Sans Frontières has installed more than 1,000 latrines in the camp … and this means you’ve got to manage what comes out of them and if you can do that in a way that doesn't just do no harm to the environment but can actually benefit it, producing by products of water and fertilizer to help grow plants, then all the better!
4. 'OYA' - WEST AFRICAN CLIMATE COLLABORATION
Spokespeople are available
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t000wY7x2_U
MSF is turning to art as a powerful medium to raise awareness and call for climate action. Oya (“Let’s Go” in several Nigerian languages) brings together West African musicians and dancers to deliver a clear message: action is needed now. "Oya" features original music and choreography created by West African artists including singers Mao Sidibé and Def Mama Def and dancers from the prestigious Senegal-based École des Sables. The lyrics are an artistic interpretation of testimonies from our projects in Niger, Cameroon, and Madagascar and the video features images from some of the countries where MSF works that are impacted by climate change.