A ‘Communiversity’ Seeks To Reduce Local Environmental Hazards Author: Marianne Amoss

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01675 Pensacola, Florida, is known for its white sand beaches, but it’s also home to several historically Black communities plagued by environmental hazards. One such community, Wedgewood, has just 270 homes but seven solid waste facilities and four borrow pits—huge holes created by excavating soil or other material that are sometimes converted into landfills that can leach chemicals into the ground. Residents report high rates of respiratory illnesses, heart disease, and cancer that they believe are linked to these hazards.

Creating Climate Change Action Within Communities Author: Margaret Winchester

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01782 Starting from a young age, Amanda Li was interested in climate-related work. As a recent college and master of public health degree graduate, she found her way to ecoAmerica, a nonprofit climate organization based in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, California. Located in Seattle, Washington, Li is the senior manager of their Climate for Health program.

Menu Changes Under NYC’s Revised Food Standards Were Associated With A Reduction In Greenhouse Gas Emissions Authors: E. R. H. Moore em885@cornell.edu, Alyssa J. Moran, Laura Stadler, Elizabeth Solomon, Sonia Y. Angell, and Roni A. Neff

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01669 Local policy makers increasingly have implemented nutrition standards for municipal programs to advance population health and climate change goals. Yet little is known about the impact of these policies. In 2008, New York City established nutrition standards for food purchased and served by city agencies, and in 2022, it revised the standards to limit meat and increase plant-based options. Using menu data from four agencies serving 77 percent of all city meals, we examined changes in their entrée offerings, as well as greenhouse gas and nutrition content associated with their total menu offerings, from fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2024. All agencies reduced the frequency of beef entrées offered on menus and increased the frequency of vegetarian entrées. Changes in total menu offerings were associated with an estimated reduction of 0.64 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions per portion across all agencies and programs, while the nutrition content generally remained consistent. These findings suggest that municipal food standards can support greenhouse gas reductions without compromising nutrition, and they offer a model for other jurisdictions seeking to advance both population and environmental health goals.

Empowering South Los Angeles Tenants To Advance Climate Policies That Protect Their Rights Author: Cynthia Miki Strathmann

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01728 This article tells the story of vulnerable tenants in South Los Angeles, California, and their work with a community-based organization to advance policies that address climate change while also protecting tenant rights. Climate change is having a disproportionately negative impact on low-income renters in South Los Angeles, where housing is often crowded, unaffordable, and poorly maintained, and extreme heat events can make indoor living unbearable. Cooling mandates and improvements such as building decarbonization can help. Because landlords have used remodeling and renovations as an excuse for harassment or eviction, tenants have been wary of these policies’ unintended consequences. But with ongoing education and partnership with a community organization, tenants are now supporting and successfully advocating for policies that address the root causes of climate change and create healthier homes while providing protections that preserve tenants’ access to safe and affordable housing.

Latino Climate And Health Dashboard: Community-Informed Implementation, Data, And Policy Action Authors: Arturo Vargas Bustamante avb@ucla.edu, Silvia R. González, Julia Silver, Rosario Majano, and Samantha Alejandre

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01639 Latino communities in California experience disproportionate climate-related health risks, including extreme heat and air pollution. Despite the state’s leadership in climate and environmental justice policy, existing data systems often do not integrate climate exposures, health outcomes, or neighborhood-level vulnerability in ways that meaningfully inform policy action. This Analysis draws on insights from the Latino Climate and Health Dashboard, a publicly available, neighborhood-level data tool that documents disparities between Latino and non-Latino White neighborhoods across California. The dashboard was developed with advisory board guidance, using the EPIS (exploration, preparation, implementation, sustainment) framework to structure data development and engagement. After the dashboard’s release, we convened community policy dialogues (“policy pláticas”) in which community organization leaders, practitioners, advocates, and legislative staff interpreted the findings and identified five policy priorities: coordinated climate and air quality governance, sustained community monitoring and early warning systems, equitable cooling and infrastructure investments, stronger connections between climate policy and health outcomes, and climate-resilient access to health care and worker protections. A participatory data tool can support equity-oriented climate-health policy making and inform efforts to translate data into policy action.

Farmers And Ranchers: The Stress And Anxiety Fueled By Climate Change, And Interventions That Could Help Authors: Maud Powell maud.powell@oregonstate.edu, Mary Halbleib, David Rothwell, and Chad Reznicek

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01726 Farmers and ranchers are on the front lines of climate change, facing escalating production pressures, economic uncertainty, and profound psychological impacts. Drawing on first-person experience and research in agricultural communities, this Commentary uses narrative to illuminate how climate grief—grief experienced in response to actual or anticipated loss resulting from climate change—affects farmers and ranchers and shapes their capacity for climate adaptation. In addition to this experiential framing, the authors include an illustrative example of a team-developed intervention designed to support farmers’ and ranchers’ mental health; this example is offered not as original research but as a practice-based case to stimulate the broader policy conversation. Taken together, these perspectives underscore the need to integrate mental health support into agricultural climate resilience efforts. Although programs such as the Department of Agriculture’s Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network represent important progress, current initiatives remain fragmented and underresourced. Research on mental health interventions related to climate change in general is sparse. Increasing investment and coherent policy are essential to ensuring that climate adaptation strategies address the full spectrum of challenges that farmers and ranchers face—physical, economic, and psychological.

Assessing The Implementation Of Climate And Health Adaptation In Pacific Island Jurisdictions Authors: Christopher J. Boyer cboyer10@uw.edu, Kristie L. Ebi, Jeremy J. Hess, Kathryn Bowen, Kathleen Dolan, Calvin Johanes, Mary Hannah Smith, and Nicole A. Errett

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01661 Pacific Island Jurisdictions are highly affected by climate change. Across the health sector, implementation of planned adaptation strategies has been uneven. It has been constrained by limited human and financial resources and organizational capacity, inadequate climate-health risk assessments, and imprecise estimates about the effectiveness of climate-related interventions. To fill these gaps, this study assessed the degree of implementation of health adaptation activities in Pacific Island Jurisdictions, using a combination of implementation science and climate change adaptation frameworks. We found that Pacific Island Jurisdictions have made advances in the implementation of health adaptation activities such as establishing coordination mechanisms, building awareness, and conducting assessments. However, less progress has been made in operationalizing targeted policies, programs, and interventions, including monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Our findings offer the potential to increase resilience if applied by practitioners (for example, public health professionals) and decision makers to inform and seek support for additional health adaptation investments.