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“Climate change is going to exacerbate an already vulnerable population, especially in conflict zones,” says Dr. Omnia El Omrani, an Egyptian physician and the first official Youth Envoy for the UN Climate Summit. Omnia shares how the NHS has been pushing towards an even wider definition of “do no harm” with its push for net zero emissions, as well as sharing examples of how the people living in some of the toughest places for climate change are being helped by practical climate solutions. Recorded live at Oxford’s Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit 2025.
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Introduction
00:50 NHS and climate resilience
02:27 Global healthcare systems adapting to climate change
02:51 Health in harmony: a case study
04:06 Climate change and mental health
04:31 Solar panels in refugee camps
05:23 Personal stories and global impact
08:01 Youth-led climate justice initiatives
09:38 Conclusion
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies Bite-sized nuggets of Climate Goodness.
[00:00:05] Ben Hurst: From our TEDx London experts in under 10 minutes In this week’s climate Curious, we are looking at how conflict healthcare and climate intersect with Egyptian physician and the first official youth voy for the UN Climate Summit. Dr.
[00:00:22] Ben Hurst: Omnia l Om Omnia shares stories of success. From bringing solar panels to refugee camps, to power everyday [00:00:30] life to how the NHS has been taking its oath to do no harm to the next level with its climate plans. Let’s head over to Omnia now to hear more recorded Live at the Oxford’s right here, right now.
[00:00:42] Ben Hurst: Global Climate Summit [00:00:45] 2025. Stay curious.
[00:00:50] NHS and climate resilience
[00:00:50] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: There is a lot of hope and there’s a tremendous amount of things that people are doing that we are all doing and that can be done. Um, and I’m definitely always, [00:01:00] um, feel very motivated that there are solutions not in the future. They are happening now and they are led by communities from the grassroots, but also many governments are doing a lot of great work.
[00:01:12] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And one great example we always use, [00:01:15] um, is the UK because the, the national. The NHS is literally the first healthcare system in the world to commit to being net zero, and it’s not just about reducing its carbon emissions, like the health sector [00:01:30] as a whole globally contributes to 3.5% of carbon emissions.
[00:01:34] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Compared to the energy sector, which is over 70% or more. But the idea is, is like as a hospital, we, our duty is to do no harm, so we need to walk the talk and [00:01:45] reduce our carbon emissions. Similarly, for also people to understand is when you reduce your carbon emissions, so let’s say you use renewable sources of energy like solar, or you reduce your waste disposal, uh, or change the way that you do that these uh, [00:02:00] or.
[00:02:01] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Um, focus on the maintenance of medical equipment. Not only does this reduce the carbon footprint of a hospital, it also saves money, and that money can be used to improve the quality of the healthcare services that [00:02:15] people receive. So it is a win-win that the NHS is doing and leading a lot of research and implementation in the system.
[00:02:22] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Um, and similarly. Many healthcare systems are doing the same.
[00:02:27] Global healthcare systems adapting to climate change
[00:02:27] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And over 60 countries have committed as part of the World Health Organization initiative to being climate resilient. So to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate, so to have early warning systems or, um, to, to be able to anticipate any outbreaks that are coming in or injury or injuries related to climate disaster, and at the same time to reduce their own carbon footprint.
[00:02:51] Health in harmony: a case study
[00:02:51] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Another great example, I, I, I love to give. Which is an organization I have the privilege to support, uh, for many years. It’s [00:03:00] called Health in Harmony, and they are, they work with indigenous communities in, um, Madagascar, Indonesia, and a few other countries. And what they do is that they. Went first to the communities, and these communities were doing a lot of [00:03:15] deforestation and they wanted to help them.
[00:03:16] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: So, you know, normally we would go to them and do a campaign and be like, don’t do that. But they didn’t wanna do that. They wanted to understand what does the com, why is the community doing that? And then when they had lot of consultations and dialogues and hearing from them, they said that the reason [00:03:30] they’re doing that because they need the money to get the healthcare, uh, service that they need, and they don’t have.
[00:03:36] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Any hospitals, it’s very remote. It’s very difficult. So what they did is that they built in small healthcare facilities and units [00:03:45] and people started reducing their deforestation and they started being able to protect nature once again. So also. Giving people the access to healthcare and also listening to what communities are doing [00:04:00] and working together with them.
[00:04:01] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: This brings a lot of hope and a lot of action, uh, towards, uh, climate change.
[00:04:06] Climate change and mental health
[00:04:06] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Similarly, I, in my, in my work at Imperial College in London, we did a set of dialogues to understand the impacts of climate change on mental health. Um, and we did this with, uh, over 900 experts in 80 countries. They are a combination of climate scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and so on, and lived experience advisors, so many indigenous people, young people, farmers, and fisher people.
[00:04:31] Solar panels in refugee camps
[00:04:31] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And one example I’ve seen, uh, connecting also climate and conflict was in Jordan. Our partners there, they went to the biggest, um, refugee camp in Jordan, and they realized that they had a lot of power outages. [00:04:45] And this is, this put a strain on the community, especially on children. They don’t, they aren’t able to go to school, like a lot of challenges that they were facing.
[00:04:53] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And they installed solar panels in their refugee camp to provide them with a consistent, cheap, renewable [00:05:00] source of energy. And this has completely transformed the way that. People there in the camp are able to function, children going to school, feeling safer in the evening for women as well. And this is an example of how you’re building both the resilience of the people while [00:05:15] also protecting and promoting the planet.
[00:05:23] Personal stories and global impact
[00:05:23] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: Last week I was at the, uh, world Health Assembly, which is a, a conference that the World Health [00:05:30] Organization does and it brings in ministers from around the world to discuss health issues. Um, and I was invited to speak in an event that was led by, uh, the Western Pacific region of the World Health Organization.
[00:05:42] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: We had two ministers. One of them was from [00:05:45] Fiji, and uh, the other minister was from Cooks Island. Um, and. In her intervention, it was about climate change and she started crying, um, because she was sharing how her island was. [00:06:00] There was under like was many parts of her island was being submerged basically, and losing where her childhood home was.
[00:06:08] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: It’s no longer existing because of sea high, like rising sea levels. And at the same time as a [00:06:15] minister of health, she’s. Seeing, um, dinghy virus, like dinghy fever outbreak, uh, more than she’s never seen before. And the reason why she also felt very hopeless was that, um, and I remember her saying that we are [00:06:30] suffering because of climate change and carbon emissions that we didn’t contribute to.
[00:06:35] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And that injustice is what always strikes. Me, um, being in, being in Egypt and like I am, I’m very fortunate that while I [00:06:45] do see the impacts and on, on the patients, uh, in terms of air quality, in terms of extreme heat, but the existential risk of losing land, losing culture, losing family members, um, is so [00:07:00] powerful for, for me personally, to keep doing the work because it’s, it’s.
[00:07:05] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: This summit is about human rights and it’s about justice. Um, and that’s one of the things that I want, I hope people understand that yes, sometimes to, to [00:07:15] transition to, to net zero. It, you know, it needs a bit of funding and it needs a bit of governments to stop thinking about the next year and to start thinking about the next 10 years, but they also need to start.
[00:07:26] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: They need to consider like the historical responsibility of [00:07:30] who’s suffering and who contributed, who’s paying the cost, um, who’s bearing the brunt, um, and what are they doing to protect. These people and we have a, a duty to, to, to them. And it’s not, you know, it’s not just small [00:07:45] state islands that are so far away from us to, to live their reality.
[00:07:49] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: It’s also, I, I’m sure many communities here in the UK and in Egypt and in other, in other countries. Um, but also there are stories of hope. And on the other hand, [00:08:00] I, um.
[00:08:01] Youth-led climate justice initiatives
[00:08:01] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: In my, in my team, uh, I was supporting, um, a group of young people who established a tribunal, um, where they were gathering witnesses to describe how climate change is impacting their health and their communities.
[00:08:14] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: [00:08:15] Um, but this tribunal was created because, uh, a la only last year, the International Court of Justice is now developing an opinion on climate change, um, an advisory opinion. And this was led, like it was single [00:08:30] handedly driven by the. Pacific Student Island, uh, Alliance. So students pushed for it and they pushed Vana to, to push for that.
[00:08:39] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And then the Inter International Court of Justice had an open call for all countries to make [00:08:45] submissions on what they think the impacts of climate change is on human rights. And our tribunal was there to gather evidence and stories and lived experience to feed directly into this process led by youth.
[00:08:57] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: And this is why this opinion will be a [00:09:00] way to hold companies and governments accountable and also push them to act on climate change. And only a month ago, uh, there was a case led by young people in South Africa where they wanted to open a new coal power plan. Um, [00:09:15] and then the, you know, the government was like, well, you can sue us.
[00:09:17] Dr. Omnia El Omrani: We have to do it. It’s for the economy, all of that, blah, blah, blah. And then they were like, okay, fine. They actually sued them and they used. The right to health, to clean air, the children’s right to clean air. They want the case [00:09:30] and the cold power plant will not be opened. And these are like pretty powerful examples that I always see from people I have the privilege to work with.
[00:09:38] Conclusion
[00:09:38] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.
[00:09:41] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDx [00:09:45] London. Until next time, stay curious.
