From March 13 to 17, 2023, the workshop “Climate, Environment, and Health for the Americas” was held in San Martín de los Andes, organized by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), the Ministry of Public Health of the province of Neuquén, Argentina, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Global Consortium for Climate and Health Education (GCCHE). The province of Neuquén was selected as the venue for the event because it is one of the provinces where PAHO implements a proposal approved by the Green Climate Fund to strengthen the health sector’s response to climate change, with the national government and three provincial governments (Neuquén, Misiones, and Tucumán).
The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacities of researchers and decision-makers to address the complex problems that link climate, environment, and human health in the region from a transdisciplinary and intersectoral perspective. Likewise, meetings with local authorities from the government of the Argentine province of Neuquén and other provinces of Patagonia, national authorities from the Argentine government, and international organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization, focused on ways to develop greater regional collaboration and a coordinated agenda in the nexus of climate, environment, and health.
The workshop convened almost 100 experts from 20 countries in the Americas who represented academic, governmental, non-governmental, and international institutions. Thirteen transdisciplinary research teams also participated, which will receive funding from IAI to implement seed projects that will generate scientific knowledge to support decision-making in the Americas.
Finally, the call for the Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action on Climate, Environment and Health II (CRA2) was announced, which seeks to support innovative and transformative initiatives that generate evidence-based solutions to improve the quality of life of vulnerable populations. The IAI will fund teams from its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (more information: https://www.iai.int/es/news/detail/Collaborative-Research-Action-on-Climate-Environment-and-Health-II).
Among the attendees of the workshop were:
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