The Geneva Graduate Institute-hosted Global Health Centre together with the World Health Organisation, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Geneva Environment Network organized an event to explore opportunities to strengthen the climate-health agenda in the lead up to the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 31) and to examine how new coalitions and political initiatives can accelerate action.

The theme of the event was ‘Two-Speed Multilateralism: Can it Address the Climate and Health Agenda?’ Participants explored questions about how effectively health considerations are integrated into climate mitigation, adaptation, finance, and just transition frameworks. Discussions highlighted the emergence of “two-speed multilateralism,” where coalitions of the willing advance practical initiatives and voluntary roadmaps alongside consensus-based UN processes.

There was general agreement among panelists that when traditional, consensus-based multilateralism stagnates, a need emerges for alternative, faster diplomatic modes of engagement. This “two-speed multilateralism,” they argued, combines the legitimacy of consensus-based UN negotiations with the ambition and rapid implementation capacities of smaller coalitions of the willing. The latter form of engagement aims to prevent single nations from blocking progress on environmental and public health protections, they explained.

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The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, convening later this month in Santa Marta, Colombia, was highlighted as a prime example of such accelerated diplomacy. Co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, the Conference aims to bypass the lack of consensus by establishing a clear pathway for transitioning away from fossil fuels outside the formal UN process.

“If a certain subset of parties or countries can take a part of the agenda that moves things in a positive way, then you know that has to be supported,” said Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, World Health Organization (WHO). He argued that the health gains from reducing air pollution would cover the costs of transitioning away from fossil fuels, expressing support for this accelerated track.

“Two-speed multilateralism is certainly not a new phenomenon,” said Global Health Centre Co-Director Suerie Moon. “Ever since the UN was founded 80 years ago, there have been parallel bilateral and minilateral processes that work alongside global multilateral processes,” she stated.

When traditional consensus-based talks revealed that a UN-based landmine convention would be impossible, a group of progressive countries moved negotiations outside the UN, leading to the creation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, or the Ottawa Treaty, highlighted Colombia’s representative Miguel Ruiz Botero. Together with the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) eventual adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty, this demonstrates how coalitions of the willing can lead to meaningful international agreements even when broad consensus fails, he explained.

On integrating health into climate action, Türkiye’s health expert Gül Mersinlioglu Serin saw “value in both tracks, the inclusiveness and legitimacy of the UN system alongside the dynamism of the coalition of voluntary initiatives that can accelerate progress.”

While two decades of silos between climate and health negotiations present challenges, the adoption at COP 30 of 59 voluntary indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) enables countries to measure climate impacts through human health metrics, such as heat-related mortality and local health system resilience, emphasized Türkiye’s Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change representative Ömer Öztürk.

Another example highlighted during the event was the Belém Health Action Plan, which established a framework for building low-carbon, climate-resilient health systems, helping translate slow-moving global agreements into on-the-ground implementation.

Welcoming efforts to mainstream climate considerations into sectoral policies, IISD’s Margarita Gutierrez warned that unless countries integrate health metrics into their formal climate commitments, such as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), maintaining health’s relevance and securing funding will remain difficult.

The event took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 30 March 2026. [Two-speed Multilateralism: Can it Address the Climate and Health Agenda?] [Health Policy Watch Summary]