Harnessing climate finance for public health: a global perspective

Abstract Based on the OECD’s climate finance project database, this research comprehensively analyzes investments in the health sector from over 188,000 project records since 2000. It systematically assesses adaptive climate finance and public health data across 127 countries by employing a new climate finance tracking method. Findings show that adaptive climate finance positively impacts public health outcomes, with a 1% increase in adaptive climate finance in the health sector reducing infant mortality by 0.669% and crude mortality by 0.80%. Mechanism analysis shows climate finance primarily improves public health by mitigating air pollution and optimizing water resource management. The impact presents significant variation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and those heavily reliant on agriculture, where the positive effects of climate finance are more pronounced. Accordingly, the paper proposes policy recommendations for optimizing the allocation of global climate finance and promoting synergy between climate objectives and public health development.