Climate and Health Education and Training

This indicator presents findings from biennial surveys of degree-granting medical, nursing, and public health institutions that assess the current state of climate and health education and training. For the 2026 Countdown, a global survey of nursing education was conducted between October 15, 2025, and February 2, 2026, with participation from 638 degree-granting nursing institutions across 87 countries. To support broad global participation and dissemination of the survey, the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) partnered with international, regional, and national nursing and health education organizations and networks.

The results from these surveys provide valuable insights into the current state of climate and health education and training at medical, nursing, and public health institutions. However, there are several potential limitations inherent in the methodology. Fewer institutions in countries with a low or medium HDI responded to the surveys compared to those with a high or very high HDI. Importantly, because the survey relies on voluntary participation, results may be biased towards responses from institutions already providing climate and health education and training, who may be more motivated to participate. Further, the indicator relies upon self-reported information from faculty or curriculum committee members. This introduces the potential for bias, as respondents may overestimate or underestimate the extent of climate and health education offered at their institution. Efforts to enable global participation by partnering with regional public health and medical associations, as well as offering the survey in multiple languages, were made. However, language barriers and distribution challenges could still have limited participation from certain regions or institutions. There are also concerns about capacity, with institutions with greater resources potentially having more time and ability to respond. This report represents the first global assessment of climate and health education and training within medical, nursing, and public health education. In subsequent years, this indicator will be reported on a biannual basis, as substantive curriculum changes are unlikely to occur within an 18 month timeframe. To balance reporting across health professions, future data collection will alternate between nursing programmes and schools of public health and medicine. We also aim to include schools of pharmacy in future.