A space to celebrate key moments of the Connecting Climate Minds project.
Milestones
On 19-21 March 2024, Connecting Climate Minds stakeholders will come together in person in Barbados to finalise the Global Research and Action Agenda. We will also celebrate the communities that have been built and the past year’s tremendous work by the Regional Community Convenors, Lived Experience Working Group, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and Imperial’s Climate Cares Centre.
All are invited to join the event virtually to learn about the project outcomes, listen to presentations from our regional communities, youth, smallholder farmers/fisher people and indigenous communities on their findings, and connect with others joining the global climate change and mental health community.
March 2024
Global Event
(to be notified when the registration for the virtual event opens)
On the 21st of March 2024, Connecting Climate Minds will launch our Global Online Hub.
The Global Online Hub is a digital platform where you can find all project outputs; Regional and Thematic Research and Action Agendas, impact reports, toolkits, case studies and videos of people sharing their lived experience stories.
The Hub will also connect those who work in the climate change and mental health space. The Hub will allow you to create a profile and find others who are keen to collaborate.
March 2024
Global Online Hub
(to be notified once the Global Online Hub goes live)
September 2023
Indigenous Youth and Virtual Youth Dialogues
Connecting Climate Minds Youth Dialogues hosted two youth dialogues.
One took place at the UNITAR Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change as part of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. This was our first Youth Dialogue. The session was led by Maria Faciolince Martina, and supported by Lian Zeitz, who shared two poems on Indigenous worldviews of ecological loss and reconnection, and offered a space for Youth Indigenous Leaders to share reflections, lived experiences and insights from their context and community.
SustyVibes hosted the Connecting Climate Minds Virtual Youth Dialogue (Harmony Horizon), with over 70 youths attending from all over the world. This dialogue marked phase 1 of the CCM Youth dialogues and will be followed by two regional pop-ups (Rising Resilience) to be held in India and Nigeria in October 2023.
In the last month, Connecting Climate Minds has united global experts and stakeholders in climate change and mental health, transcending borders worldwide. The initial dialogues were a remarkable success, drawing 288 participants from 82 countries in all the following regions: Latin America and the Caribbean; Sub-Saharan Africa; Northern Africa and Western Asia; Central and South-Eastern Asia; Eastern and South-Eastern Asia; Oceania; and Europe and North America.
With all seven initial dialogues complete, efforts are now being directed to draft a preliminary research agenda informed by diverse lived experiences and priorities identified. The second dialogues will be underway in the upcoming weeks, where the actionable agenda will be refined and discussed across the global communities of practice.
August to September 2023
First regional dialogues
Our Regional Community Convenors (RCCs) are supported by the Regional Community Development Group (RCDG), from University of the West Indies, St Luke's Medical Centre, Claretian University. The RCDG is a small group of researchers and advocates with knowledge of climate and mental health activities across Sustainable Development Goal regions and that has background and experience in creating regional networks.
The RCCs are bringing together diverse geographies and disciplines, and recruiting their Lived Experience Advisory Group members and Youth Ambassadors who will be core to all the work of the Regional Community.
May 2023
Regional Community Convenors begin to build the regional communities
30 May 2023
First Advisory Board Meeting
Connecting Climate Minds benefits from our advisory board, who bring a range of expertise to advise on the project. The meeting was chaired by our two wonderful Advisory Board Co-Chairs, Professor Pamela Collins (Mental Health Chair) and Dr Chris Trisos (Climate Chair), with creative games to get to know each other as developed by the Red Cross Red Crescent Connecting Climate Minds team. The Advisory Board meets every two months.
The team co-created a series of newsletters that highlights the latest events, outputs, and activities, while also showcasing different members of the Connecting Climate Minds team.
View the very first of our newsletters, or subscribe for the latest news from Connecting Climate Minds.
28 April 2023
First Connecting Climate Minds newsletter sent
18 April 2023
Connecting Climate Minds Launch
Over 400 people attended our launch event online, bringing together voices of our team and a vision for how we can address two of the greatest challenges we face: climate change and mental health.
At the recent UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP28), hosted by the United Arab Emirates, Connecting Climate Minds hosted diverse events showcasing the key emerging mental health impacts of the climate crisis and possible solutions from the global dialogues.
Health Day at COP (3 December)
Connecting Climate Minds featured in the COP28 Health Day events: Jessica Newberry Le Vay and Dr Emma Lawrance spoke at the first-ever COP Presidency event on mental health at the Youth Climate Champion Pavilion co-organized with Welcome and the YOUNGO Health Working Group, sharing insights on the links between mental health and climate change, and emerging findings from the youth dialogues.
CCM-UNFCCC Official Side Event (4 December)
The side event “Catalysing aligned, inclusive, and co-beneficial action for climate change and mental health” was chaired by Professor Sir David Nabarro, Institute of Global Health Innovation. The expert panel highlighted the need for a research and action agenda for climate change and mental health and some of the insights arising from CCM. Panelists included Dr Emma Lawrance, Climate Cares Centre; Dr Renzo Guinto, St Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine; Dr Britt Wray, Stanford School of Medicine; Dr Alan Dangour, Wellcome Trust; Dr Petra Khoury, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Dr Salman Khan, the International Federation of Medical Students Association; Ana Mejia, Youth Ambassador for the Regional Community Convenor in Latin America and the Caribbean, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
Climate Cares and UNU Panel (8 December)
At the COP28 Health Pavilion, the Climate Cares Centre and the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS and UNU-Merit) co-organized a panel discussion on “Connecting psychological resilience and mental health to climate action: Insights and hopes of young people" moderated by Sacha Wright, Force of Nature on Friday 8 December. During the session, Dr Emma Lawrance shared research insights on the mental health impacts of climate change and the important perspectives shared by young participants at the CCM dialogues on actions that can foster both psychological and climate resilience.