Most discussions about fossil fuels stop at the moment of combustion. Cradle to Grave takes a ground-breaking approach – mapping the entire fossil fuel lifecycle and exposing the health harms at every stage, from extraction to abandoned sites. This flagship report takes a novel approach: it maps the entire fossil fuel lifecycle, examines effects across every stage of human life and every system of the body, and pairs global scientific evidence with case studies and personal testimonies to show how fossil fuels deepen inequity. Peer-reviewed by 15 experts across medicine, public health, toxicology, law, and climate policy, it provides the clearest picture yet of why fossil fuels are not just an environmental threat, but a public health emergency. The site provides various resources for public health personnel to use in advancing work on ending fossil fuel public health impacts.
Useful Resources
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) convened the SADC Food and Nutrition Security Technical Steering Committee Meeting in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, from 14–18 September 2026, bringing together Member States, regional experts and development partners to review implementation of the 2015–2025 SADC Food and Nutrition Security Strategy and refine the draft SADC Food and Nutrition Security Strategy 2026–2036. The meeting formed part of SADC’s efforts to shape a new 10-year agenda for food and nutrition security, with a stronger focus on resilient food systems, addressing the triple burden of malnutrition, preparedness, accountability and evidence-based action. Member States emphasised the importance of ensuring that the new Strategy responds to national realities while remaining aligned with regional, continental and global development frameworks. Member States called for stronger action to address all forms of malnutrition, including the growing triple burden of malnutrition, through coordinated interventions across food, health, WASH, education and social protection. Stronger dietary guidelines, consumer awareness, safeguards around the marketing of food to children and behaviour-change interventions were among the areas highlighted. The draft Strategy places greater emphasis on effective implementation, stronger coordination, sustainable resource mobilisation and clear accountability.
The Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) launched the African Critical Minerals Atlas (ACMA) on 9 February 2026, on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba. ACMA is designed to spotlight Africa's most important mining sites and bring more voices into the continent's critical minerals conversation — particularly as Africa's role in global energy transition, electronics, defence, and AI infrastructure supply chains becomes increasingly pivotal. ACMA currently features six flagship mining sites across the continent in Gabon, DRC, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Each site offers a visual deep dive into geology, ownership, industrial and trade infrastructure, ESG standards, human settlements, and the natural environment. The broader goal is to support policymakers, researchers, investors, students, and the public in understanding Africa's strategic role in global value chains — and to accelerate the answering of the big questions shaping the continent's resource futures.
In this webinar, the speakers raised the ongoing crisis and health impacts due to military aggression with particular focus on Palestine, Lebanon, Cuba and Iran. The webinar foregrounds multiple voices of resistance and solidarity from across the globe, asserting the primacy of people’s health and peace over militarism and imperialist aggression. Speakers included Ubai Al-Aboudi, Bisan Center, Ramallah, Palestine, Zeina Mohanna, AMEL, Lebanon, Jennifer Cardona Malaver, ALAMES on Cuba, Aziz Rhali, Global coordinator, PHM, Prabir Purkayastha, Delhi Science Forum and Newsclick, India and Anand Grover, Advocate and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to health
This document presents the comprehensive health toll of fossil fuels across their entire lifecycle—from extraction through combustion to post-use waste—documenting severe health impacts including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular illness, cancers, neurological disorders, and premature mortality that disproportionately affect marginalized communities in "sacrifice zones." It presents policy recommendations including halting new fossil fuel exploration, ending subsidies and redirecting funds to health infrastructure, internalizing health costs through the "polluter pays" principle, implementing community-led research, regulating industry disinformation, ending fossil fuel finance, and healthcare sector leadership in decarbonization.
Africa is a promising regional venue for climate change-related complaints—not least because it is distinctively vulnerable to climate harms. Yet, neither the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights nor the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights had been theatres to such disputes at the time of writing (this may have since changed). Understanding that climate litigation will emerge before the African human rights system, this practice note provides information to the non-State actors and their lawyers on the procedural challenges that may arise, demonstrating how such challenges may be circumventable in the African context.
Health Equity in Focus is a series of podcasts that delve into the intricate dynamics of global health, examining how historical legacies continue to shape present-day realities in the Global South. Global health institutions, when failing to address deep-rooted issues, can perpetuate inequalities between North and South. Across various episodes, the podcast explores issues like the implications of intellectual property to access to medicines, the use of policy space through TRIPS flexibilities, international regulatory standards, the intersection of biological diversity with health, and developments regarding these topics in international fora, through an equity perspective. While they involve technical contributions, they advocate for a reimagined global order, where development equips countries with the means to uplift their populations and foster a fairer, more equitable world..
This seventh edition of Global Health Watch, the flagship publication of the People's Health Movement (PHM), features contributions from over one hundred activists worldwide and is published open access in both English and Spanish. It is structured around five main sections examining: The global political and economic architecture, privatization and financialization of health systems, tax justice, artificial intelligence and digital technologies in health, gender-transformative health systems, abolition medicine, and decolonizing global health approaches; key social and environmental determinants of health, and global governance for health. The final "Resistance, struggles and alternatives" section highlights transformative change areas by health activists, including in contexts of increasing repression. The publication concludes by emphasizing that collective action represents the most powerful medicine against ill health and health inequality at human and planetary levels.
WHO has developed an Urban health capacities assessment and response resource kit that equips multi-sectoral teams to assess whether a given initiative can meet its goals in a complex urban environment. It helps answer a critical question: Do we have the right capacities in place to achieve our objectives that influence urban health —whether directly or indirectly? The Kit provides a structured framework through its Primer, and a step-by-step process in the Action Guide and Training Videos, helping you evaluate key capacities across four critical areas: Informed decision-making, monitoring, and evaluation; Policies, programmes, innovation, and change; Resource management (human, financial, and infrastructural) and Partnerships, participation, and knowledge sharing. There are also real-world examples in the City-examples section.
This site has been designed as a self-learning tool for grassroots activists, advocacy organisations, and policy makers looking to centre health justice in their work. Work is organised into a unique narrative arch used to help people learn specific health injustice topics. This Urban Health Council’s role is to summon together people under an autonomous method of governance and practice whereby peer-led programmes determine the direction of production of works that support health justice movements, led by the People for the People, meeting them where they are with what they need. Each programme is supported through a scientific, technical and financial ecosystem where all works produced are made open-access in a Living Encyclopedia.