Protecting brains and minds in a transition away from fossil fuels

In April 2026, 57 countries gathered in Colombia, for a first-of-its-kind summit on moving the world away from coal, oil, and gas. Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Senior Researcher in Climate Change and Child Health from The University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, joined the climate and health community at the conference advocating for health and wellbeing to be at the heart of the energy transition. In August, recommendations for national governments and the climate and health community, emerging from the conference discussions, was published in The Lancet, on which Jessica is a co-author. Here, Jessica outlines what this moment in climate policy means for how we move forward to protect our brains and minds.

Why do fossil fuels matter for brain health, mental health, and wellbeing?

Extracting, transporting, and burning fossil fuels is causing escalating harm to brain health, development, mental health, and wellbeing. Climate action, however, creates win-win opportunities for health and wellbeing, economies and societies. For instance, modelling suggests China’s air pollution reduction policies accounted for 10% of the reduction in suicide between 2014-17. Health, wellbeing, and psychological resilience are also not only outcomes of climate policy, but foundational conditions for achieving climate action. Positively reinforcing links exist between improved wellbeing, equity, trust, transparent and participatory governance, and lower emissions.

Present in the room, absent from the outcomes

The conference was designed to be more than just a government dialogue. A total of 14 stakeholder groups - including Indigenous Peoples, children and youth, trade unions, and a science pre-conference attended by 400 academics - provided input. Of these groups, four referenced health in their final contribution statements, and three explicitly named mental health or wellbeing. The Indigenous Peoples group, for example, called for protecting the safety, well-being and physical, mental, and spiritual health of Indigenous Peoples as an essential principle for a just transition. The Women and Diversities chapter linked spiritual and mental health harms facing women, girls, and gender-diverse people with culture loss, burdens of care, and gender-based violence. These calls to action emphasise the need for climate policies that centre holistic understandings of health and wellbeing. Yet, this was overlooked in the agreed actions published in June 2026.

Reflections on mental health and brain health 

So what are the key issues holding back putting health - particularly mental and brain health - at the heart of the energy transition? 

1. Health continues to be sidelined in climate policy. There is an ongoing need to communicate existing evidence, particularly at the intersections of climate change, mental health, and brain health, and continue to build and translate this evidence in ways that equip decision makers to act. 

2. What isn’t named can’t be measured. What isn’t measured can’t be accounted for. Many of the conference inputs and outcomes emphasised community harms of fossil fuels, the need to protect workers in a just transition, and the interplay between fossil fuels, colonialism, extractivism, and structural inequities. These discussions often stopped short of explicitly naming these as key determinants of physical and mental health. Protecting education, jobs, and homes, for example, are critical to building the conditions for good mental health and wellbeing to flourish. ‘Health’ is often the umbrella for diverse health impacts of climate change. However, health outcomes that have historically received less focus, like mental health and brain health, risk being overlooked unless they are explicitly included in research and action. 

3. But what are we naming exactly, and in whose words? 

• Diverse perspectives and understandings exist, even among people with shared missions. Including words like justice in a process does not make that process just; thoughtful exploration is needed of how concepts are collectively defined and meaningfully implemented in research and action. Similarly, many mental health terms are rooted in Western and biomedical frameworks, often excluding collective and spiritual dimensions.

• Narratives of why health and wellbeing should be included in climate policy often focus on health as a cost of fossil fuels and climate change, and a co-benefit of climate action. An equally important narrative is that promoting good mental health and wellbeing, and strengthening psychological resilience, is foundational for achieving and sustaining climate action. This includes preparing the workforce to engage with and sustain psychologically difficult work, and avoiding unintended harm to the mental health of workers in sectors affected by the transition. Conditions that support good mental health are often also good for climate action, such as stronger social connections. 

What can mental health and brain health communities do?

Our Lancet article calls for national dialogues to assess the health harms of fossil fuels and the benefits of phase-out to inform transition policies, and for the health community to be appropriately resourced and supported to measure these health harms and benefits, and to scale and translate research to policy. To support these goals and protect brains and minds, those working on mental health and brain health can: 

• Measure what matters. We need to measure the mental health and brain health costs of fossil fuels and climate change, and the benefits of climate action. What gets measured needs to reflect the perspectives, contexts and language of people and communities experiencing these harms, the priorities of governments, and build the data decision makers can act on. 

• Communicate the mental health and brain health costs of fossil fuels and benefits of action. The health harms of fossil fuels - particularly neurological harm to babies’ and young children’s developing brains caused by air pollution - are effective messages in increasing public support for climate action and decreasing support for fossil fuel use.

• Share what works. A wealth of knowledge is held across communities, disciplines, and existing interventions. Understanding, sharing and scaling what works, for who, and why (e.g., through the Connecting Climate Minds Global Online Hub and the Neuro Climate Working Group) is crucial to protect minds and brains now, as well as into the future.

• Engage in policy processes. The climate change, mental health and brain health communities can work with the governments to integrate evidence into climate and energy policy, and engage in global processes (e.g., the second Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels conference in early 2027). As global spaces continue to often be inaccessible, inequitable, and marginalise or tokenise critical voices, ensuring people most affected by climate change and experts from the Global Majority are meaningfully centred in the leadership and participation of such policy processes is vital.