Communities around the world are already facing floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, and changing patterns of disease — and health systems are on the frontlines of these impacts. As COP30 is underway in Brazil—and as governments launched the Belém Health Action Plan for Climate Adaptation, recently endorsed by Health Care Without Harm—Latin America’s health sector demonstrates how resilience is built through both adaptation and mitigation actions.
Resilient health systems not only strengthen their capacity to anticipate, absorb, and recover from climate shocks; they also cut the emissions driving those shocks through efficient infrastructure, clean energy, smarter procurement, and climate-ready clinical practice.
Across the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) network, members are already implementing elements of the Plan: assessing climate risk, hard-wiring governance, protecting water and power, training the workforce, improving air quality, and deploying low-carbon, resource-efficient solutions. The following cases show how risk-to-action strategies can protect patients and communities today—while accelerating the transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient care.
Costa Rica: Saving water, safeguarding care
Hospital Clínica Bíblica in San José has implemented a comprehensive program to reuse rainwater and promote the efficient use of drinking water. Collected from rooftops, the water is filtered and reused for gardens, sanitation, laundry, and cleaning, allowing the hospital to save approximately 31,000 m³ of drinking water each year—around 33% of its total consumption. Education campaigns and clear signage throughout the facilities engage staff and patients, encouraging everyone to participate in these water-saving efforts.
To ensure a safe supply, the hospital monitors water quality to national and international standards, from its source to specialized units, including hemodialysis. Backup tanks, automated chlorination, and emergency drills provide resilience in the event of a disaster, ensuring continuity of care. By treating water as both a scarce resource and a critical lifeline, Hospital Clínica Bíblica shows how hospitals can adapt to protect their communities.
Brazil: Training climate-ready health professionals, backed by resilience upgrades
At Hospital das Clínicas, affiliated with the Botucatu Medical School – UNESP, climate action is part of medical education. Each year, undergraduate medical and nursing students, as well as specialty and postgraduate trainees, learn about climate change by engaging with activities led by the Center for Sustainable Hospitals. These initiatives promote practical and replicable skills—such as risk assessment, continuity-of-care planning, resource management, and carbon footprint measurement using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol—to help future professionals mitigate impacts and adapt health services to real clinical environments.
This high-impact, governance-driven work enabled the hospital to secure the equivalent of 2 million U.S. dollars from Brazil’s National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) for upgrades with clear adaptation co-benefits: modernization of air conditioning (chiller), refrigeration, and lighting systems, as well as the installation of the largest rooftop photovoltaic plant among hospitals in Brazil, with a capacity of 1,190.75 kWp. Between August 2024 and August 2025, this solar plant generated 1,452,300 kWh—enough to supply 7,260 medium-sized hospitals for one month—resulting in savings of 115,000 U.S. dollars over that period. It also avoided 886 tCO₂ emissions per year, equivalent to planting 6,200 trees.
While strengthening the hospital’s capacity to maintain safe conditions during heat extremes and power outages, these measures also help save resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Colombia: Turning climate risk into a roadmap for action
Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá grounds its climate adaptation efforts in a structured risk and vulnerability assessment aligned with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework—examining exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity—to understand how climate hazards can affect health services and critical infrastructure. Building on this analysis, the hospital developed a multi-year roadmap that includes the creation of a Climate Risk Management Committee, a hospital-wide adaptation plan, and clear procedures for emergency management and service continuity, all documented in the institution’s vulnerability matrix.
Among its priority actions are the structural reinforcement and modernization of the traditional building’s fire protection system, the renovation of energy systems, rainwater recycling, and comprehensive hospital waste management, along with the implementation of a Building Management System (BMS) for real-time monitoring and resource efficiency. Operational resilience is designed to ensure the continuity of essential services during and for up to 72 hours after disruptive events.
The hospital also invests in staff training through its Environmental Leadership Program and the Proyecto Verde Vida, which are grounded in early warning systems and community engagement to raise awareness, reduce vulnerability, and promote sustainable, climate-resilient health practices.
Chile: Strengthening primary health care for a changing climate
In Talca, Chile, the Municipality and the Communal Health Department, through their health care network, have placed climate resilience at the center of their 2025–2030 Communal Climate Action Plan. Based on a territory-specific risk and vulnerability assessment, the plan maps how heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and droughts threaten an extensive primary care network. The diagnosis links these climate hazards with urban expansion into risk zones, low building insulation, air quality episodes, water stress, and social vulnerability, highlighting climate change as both a direct public-health risk and a systems challenge that spans health, land use, transportation, and ecosystems.
The plan prioritizes 21 adaptation measures to embed resilience into daily operations, including:
- Implementing heat-health, air quality, and water conservation measures.
- Upgrading facilities and energy systems to ensure service continuity.
- Protecting wetlands and green spaces and promoting sustainable mobility to reduce flood and heat risks.
Governance is anchored through an Environmental Health Unit and a municipal Health Environmental Agenda, ensuring staff training, community participation, and cross-sector coordination so primary care can continue to protect patients even under growing climate stress.
Mexico: Air-quality risk monitoring and adaptive operations
In Monterrey’s metro area—where 227 days in 2024 were classified as having poor air quality—TecSalud’s Hospital Zambrano Hellion treats air pollution as both public health and operational risk. The hospital installed a PurpleAir monitor which provides real-time, public data to track air pollution (PM2.5/PM10) levels, set response thresholds, and analyze historical trends. This risk surveillance supports rapid decisions to protect patients and staff, following documented spikes in respiratory cases during pollution episodes.
When pollution levels exceed safety limits, the hospital triggers protocols such as closing access to outdoor areas, controlling entrance checkpoints, requiring universal masking, and issuing situation bulletins. Leadership also reviews emergency code activation and potential activation of the Hospital Emergency & Disaster Committee to safeguard continuity of care. Next steps include air-quality alerts and indoor sensors to enhance exposure control and operational resilience.
As COP30 convenes in Belém, these Latin American cases remind us that adaptation is not an abstract goal—it’s a disciplined practice: assess risk, hard-wire governance, upgrade critical systems, train the workforce, and partner with communities to protect health equity.
The path is clear. What’s needed now is scale: dedicated finance, standards for climate-resilient health facilities, interoperable data to guide decisions, and policies that prioritize the most vulnerable. If health systems across the region adopt this risk-to-action cycle—and are enabled to do so—they can keep care safe during heat, floods, fire, and pollution, while cutting emissions and operating costs.
Adaptation is achievable today; COP30 is our moment to make it universal.