An agenda for climate change and mental health in the Philippines

Written by a group of Filipino researchers and mental health practitioners, this piece argues that as one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries, the Philippines urgently needs to attend to the climate change-mental health nexus. Although health is recognised as a priority sector in the country's Climate Change Act and its Nationally Determined Contributions, mental health effects specifically remain unacknowledged in national climate and health policy, despite escalating typhoon intensity and displacement. The authors set out a research and policy agenda for the coming decade, recommending attention to both acute disaster-related distress and the slower psychological effects of climate change, and call for multidisciplinary, inclusive action bringing together psychologists, health professionals, social scientists, policymakers and affected communities, alongside rapid decarbonisation as a form of mental health promotion at a planetary scale.