The First Step Is Easier than You Think: Walking the Path of a Pediatric Climate Health Advocate

There is a rich history of pediatric clinician leaders who recognize that societal challenges are often at the root of childhood health concerns. These professionals, whether individually or through representative organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have lent expertise and leadership to advance numerous child health policies in the United States, including child poverty reduction, improved health care access, and decreased exposure to environmental health hazards. Mitigation reduces emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs)–heat-trapping gases that cause global warming and drive climate change–into the atmosphere. Advocacy for climate change mitigation is the most important engagement point in climate action advocacy for children’s harm prevention, because it addresses the root cause. Pediatric clinicians can inform and propel efforts to limit global warming by ending the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Shifting to clean renewable energy sources.

Climate change is a health risk multiplier, the impacts of which exacerbate existing social drivers of health inequities experienced by families and in communities. Vulnerable communities suffer disproportionately from climate impacts: children of color and indigenous backgrounds, children with disabilities or underlying medical conditions, newborns, children living in poverty, and those living in linguistic isolation. These children are at greater risk of living in environments that are