About Us
About Climate Wise
Climate Wise Slides is a national, evidence-based planetary health education initiative designed to support the integration of climate and health teaching into undergraduate medical education. Our slide decks provide accessible, adaptable educational materials organized in a systems-based format, allowing both individual learners and medical schools to incorporate planetary health concepts longitudinally throughout medical training.
Our Mission
1) Integrate evidence-based planetary health education into undergraduate medical curricula
2) Educate future physicians on the relationship between climate change, environmental sustainability, and human health
3) Promote high-value, environmentally conscious healthcare practices that support both patient and planetary wellbeing
4) Equip medical learners with the knowledge and competencies needed to respond to the growing health impacts of climate change
What Inspired Climate Wise
Climate Wise was developed in response to gaps identified through the national planetary health curriculum survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce (HEART). Two key barriers to integrating planetary health into medical education consistently emerged:
Need for longitudinal training: A single lecture on climate and health was insufficient to meaningfully teach the subject, and longitudinal integration throughout the curriculum was identified as a more effective educational strategy.
Faculty engagement: Many educators, lecturers, and faculty members did not feel adequately equipped with the background knowledge or resources required to confidently teach planetary health topics.
Climate Wise was designed to address these challenges in a practical and scalable way. The slides are intentionally created to be easily integrated into existing pre-clerkship lectures and course content, allowing planetary health concepts to be woven throughout established curricula rather than taught in isolation. In addition, all material is evidence-based and fully referenced, enabling educators to learn directly from the slides themselves while teaching the content.
Who We Are
Climate Wise was founded by Canadian medical students passionate about advancing planetary health education and bridging gaps in climate-health teaching within medicine. The initiative brings together students, physicians, educators, and advocates from across Canada with interests spanning sustainable healthcare, climate justice, public health, advocacy, and the direct and indirect health impacts of climate change.
The project is currently stewarded by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce (HEART) team and continues to evolve through national collaboration and interdisciplinary contributions.
Why it Matters
Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the defining health challenges of the 21st century. Its impacts are already being felt through worsening air pollution, heat-related illness, food insecurity, infectious disease patterns, extreme weather events, and wildfire-related health consequences.Despite these realities, planetary health education remains inconsistently represented within medical curricula across Canada. The 2020 national report by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce highlighted the need for longitudinal, evidence-based planetary health teaching throughout medical education. Climate Wise was created as one approach to help address this educational gap and support the next generation of physicians in delivering informed, sustainable, and resilient healthcare.Our Partners
