A bridge between the environment, planetary health and community action

Have you ever noticed how the balance and quality of our climate – the air we breathe, the soil beneath our feet, the rain and the water cycle, heat and temperature – are closely linked to every aspect of our lives? Health, well-being, good living and community relationships are all interdependent. It is from this integrated perspective that Instituto Árvores Vivas (Living Trees Institute) is delighted to share the English edition of the Climate & Health methodology, open for replication across society.

We are also taking the methodology to COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye, in November 2026.

Why this methodology?

Climate change is already part of the present. The climate emergency has direct implications for human health: heat stress, pollution, extreme weather events and their impacts on lives and livelihoods, and the socio-economic and environmental insecurity that affects everyone’s emotional well-being – especially children and adolescents, the generation that will live longest with these uncertainties.

The Climate & Health project brings together Instituto Árvores Vivas (Living Trees Institute) and the Programa de Saúde do Adolescente (Adolescent Health Programme) of the São Paulo State Health Department, with support and funding from the Global Climate and Health Alliance through the Climate × Health Small Grants call.

The project is built on participatory learning workshops grounded in adolescents’ perspectives, with conversations and reflections on climate change, health and civic participation. From this experience, we organised the processes and results into a methodology designed for schools, health professionals, environmental educators and communities to apply, adapt and act.

What does the material offer?

• A practical, step-by-step structure for working on climate and health together, connecting the physical, emotional, collective and environmental dimensions of well-being.
• Tools for mobilisation and active learning: workshops, strategic questions and group dynamics that place optimism and proactivity at the centre, building on participants’ own perspectives and references.
• An invitation to local action: the methodology encourages participants to look at the history, socio-environmental conditions and quality of the places where they live, opening space for real, well-grounded proposals to improve their territories.
• Free and open access, to foster networks of mutual care, creativity and transformative education.

Who can use it?

• Educators and schools that wish to connect the curriculum to the climate reality and to students’ overall health.
• Health professionals who want to deepen their approach to the environment as a determinant of physical, mental and social health.
• Associations, cultural centres and community organisations that mobilise people to care for nature and for life on the planet.
• Grassroots movements and youth leaders – this methodology values the voice, experience and agency of those who live these challenges and can create, propose and drive change.

How to access it

The material is available to read and download here:

If you use it, we would love to hear how it went, what impact it had and what adaptations you made. Please fill in our feedback form, and write to our team at contato@arvoresvivas.org.br

Watch: Who is the voice of the Earth?

What’s next?

Launching the material is only the first step. The real movement begins when each person, school, group or community puts it into practice.

• Use the activities and adapt the content to your reality.
• Promote conversation circles, moments of listening and action.
• Turn the logic around: rather than simply teaching about the climate, let the climate – and health – teach us something.
• Share what works: this is a living methodology that grows through exchange.

We invite you, your community, school, health centre, cultural or social assistance service, and your collective to join this movement – co-creating new ways of inhabiting the Earth and caring for it, through our feelings, thoughts and actions, towards a fair and safe world with environmental quality and climate justice.

Caring for the climate is caring for health; caring for health is caring for life; caring for life is caring for everything that connects us.

🌿 Shall we walk this path together?

Leia em português: Lançamento da Metodologia Clima & Saúde