Climate change is having devastating consequences for human health. A new report by MSF's Humanitarian Action for Climate and Environment (HACE) Initiative and Heidelberg University Institute of Global Health describes how climate change deals a "double blow" to life-saving humanitarian aid by simultaneously multiplying health risks and making humanitarian interventions more difficult and complex.

Drawing on interviews with 49 humanitarian staff in 30 countries worldwide, the report details how rapid and slow-onset climate hazards, changes in water availability and quality, and food scarcity linked to climate change are amplifying humanitarian needs.

MSF teams are beginning to adapt to this scenario alongside the communities in which they work. The humanitarian staff interviewed described both real and imagined efforts to adapt MSF and communities to the realities of climate change, including raising awareness, anticipatory action, resilience-building, and collaboration.

"I think we've got the opportunity to… refine our way of working. In Madagascar for example… doing data driven e-prep [emergency preparedness]… and surveillance, not just for infectious diseases, but of things like rainfall or crop yields, and food insecurity and malnutrition, rather than waiting for the kids with severe acute malnutrition to start turning up," says an MSF humanitarian worker in Switzerland