about us
Doctors for Climate is the first Brazilian movement that puts physicians at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis, in defense of human health. We exist to put health at the center of climate discussions and to protect lives.
Why We Exist
The climate crisis is not just an environmental challenge. It is the greatest public health emergency of the 21st century. Its impacts are already being felt in hospitals, clinics, and communities: more heat, more disease, more human suffering.
The World Health Organization warns that between 2030 and 2050, the climate crisis could cause up to 250,000 additional deaths per year. Heat waves intensify cardiovascular and respiratory diseases; floods, droughts, and fires cause profound material and emotional losses; and new expressions of mental health, such as eco-anxiety, reveal the suffering of living on a planet in collapse.
In Brazil, the signs are everywhere: floods in the South, dengue epidemics in the Midwest and Southeast, fires in the North. The human and economic costs already exceed billions of reais per year, overburdening the health system and deepening social inequalities.
As physicians, we have an ethical duty: to be advocates for science and life in this global emergency. Defending the climate means defending the health of our patients, our families, and our communities.
There is no cure without prevention—and there is no healthy future without a habitable planet.
Our Story
The Doctors for Climate Movement, formerly known as Doctors for Clean Air, was born in 2020 in response to an urgent need: to give the medical profession a leading role in the greatest public health crisis of the 21st century—the climate crisis. Inspired by the international Doctors Against Diesel movement in the United Kingdom, we came together to address a historic void in Brazil: the lack of medical mobilization on the impacts of air pollution and climate change on health.
Our first step was historic: we brought together more than ten medical associations with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office to ensure the implementation of PROCONVE P8 (Program for the Control of Air Pollution by Motor Vehicles). This achievement meant the chance to prevent 140,000 deaths in 30 years and reduce the hospital costs of the Unified Health System (SUS) by more than R$ 500 million.
From there, we continued to expand our activities:
