CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE AND INSTITUTIONAL RESILIENCE

Abstract

Climate change has evolved from an environmental and developmental concern into a major threat to global health security. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, changing patterns of infectious disease transmission, food and water insecurity, air pollution, displacement, and the disruption of health infrastructure increasingly interact with existing social and institutional vulnerabilities. These developments challenge conventional approaches to global health security that have traditionally emphasized outbreaks, biological threats, and emergency response while giving insufficient attention to the structural and environmental determinants of health emergencies. This article examines the relationship between climate change and global health security through a qualitative analysis of secondary sources, including peer-reviewed literature, international policy documents, reports, and institutional frameworks. The study adopts an interdisciplinary analytical approach integrating global health governance, climate governance, international relations, public health, health-system resilience, and institutional theory. It argues that climate-related health security cannot be effectively addressed through emergency response alone. Instead, it requires institutional resilience, anticipatory governance, integrated surveillance, climate-informed health planning, equitable international cooperation, sustainable financing, and stronger coordination among health, environmental, economic, humanitarian, and security institutions. The article further demonstrates that existing global governance arrangements remain fragmented: climate governance operates primarily through the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, while health security is substantially organized through the World Health Organization and International Health Regulations. Although these regimes increasingly recognize their interdependence, institutional coordination remains inadequate. The article proposes an integrated climate-health security governance framework based on risk anticipation, institutional preparedness, cross-sectoral coordination, equity, accountability, and adaptive learning. It concludes that climate change should be treated not merely as a background determinant of health but as a systemic risk multiplier capable of amplifying existing vulnerabilities and generating cascading health emergencies. Strengthening global health security therefore requires moving from reactive crisis management toward prevention-oriented, climate-resilient, and institutionally coordinated governance.