ndicators
We are pleased to confirm that the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) officially agreed to incorporate SOSCHI’s proposed indicators into the Global Set of Climate Change Statistics, marking a key milestone for the project.
The Global Set provides a framework for countries to prepare their own climate change statistics. Building on this, on 5 June, United Nations’ Statistical Division updated the Global Set’s metadata to include the newly-endorsed SOSCHI indicators. This update will support consistent global monitoring of climate-health impacts worldwide and help ensure policy makers and statisticians have access to robust, comparable methodology for decision making.
SOSCHI priority topics and final framework publication
The SOSCHI project team has successfully published the final Statistical Framework Report alongside accompanying documents for the six priority topics on the open-access research portal, Zenodo. This marks a significant milestone in the delivery of the project, reflecting extensive collaboration, technical development and stakeholder engagement across the climate and health space.
For each priority topic, the documents are structured to support a wide range of users:
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Topic introduction – outlining the context, relevance, rationale for the topic, and indicators
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Methodology – explaining how the topic’s headline indicator is defined and applied
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Metadata – providing a brief overview of key indicator information
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R package in CRAN and GitHub – enabling users to apply the methodology and produce indicators in practice
Together, these resources provide a comprehensive and practical foundation for strengthening national statistical systems to develop, produce and use climate-health statistics. For more information see our latest blog and our climate-health platform.
Video series on SOSCHI R package
Following the release of our “climatehealth” R package on GitHub and CRAN, a series of short videos is now available to support users in understanding how to apply the package to produce climate and health indicators.
The series provides practical, step-by-step demonstrations starting with installing the R package, running descriptive statistics and finally analysis results from the climate-health indicator. This series will enable users to build confidence, improve consistency in analysis and will make the package more accessible to the wider community.
Updates to R package
An updated version (v1.0.2) of the climatehealth R package is now available on GitHub and CRAN. This update focuses on improving the usability, accessibility and reliability of the package for users applying the SOSCHI methods in practice.
The new release includes:
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accessibility improvements to aid interpretation and reporting: including clearer plot layouts, more consistent SOSCHI styling, and accessible captions/alternative text for figures
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updates to the descriptive statistics workflow, allowing users to produce these alongside indicator results by running the descriptive statistics module within the main analysis workflows
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a series of stability and method updates across the indicator workflows: including improved handling of regional outputs, stronger input checks, clearer model validation outputs, expanded air pollution functionality, and additional testing across the package.
We encourage users to explore and test the package on their own datasets. For feedback or queries, please contact climate.health@ons.gov.uk.
Healthcare systems and infrastructure report
Our partners, Regional Institute of Population Studies (RIPS), Ghana, have published a Case Study Report on climate impacts on healthcare systems and infrastructure in Ghana. This research is based on the qualitative approach developed as part of the SOSCHI framework (alpha stage).
SOSCHI webinars
Improving official statistics in climate and health:
Data challenges, solutions and policy perspectives
This ONS-SOSCHI hosted webinar brought together national statistical offices, statisticians, policymakers, and researchers to explore key data challenges and practical solutions in this rapidly evolving field. We were delighted to be joined by presenters Prof. Tarik Benmarhnia of the University of California, San Diego and Dr Kanza Ahmed, Global Public Health Consultant at the UK Health Security Agency. A recording of the session is now available.
Statistics on climate and health
The ONS-SOSCHI project presented at a webinar hosted by the Health Statistics User Group (HSUG) and Royal Statistical Society (RSS). The event on 20 May looked at statistical approaches used for monitoring the impact of climate on health. A recording will be made available soon.
Consultative Platform on Climate and Health in Africa
(CAPCHA) Spotlight
At this inaugural webinar hosted by the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN) the SOSCHI team presented on the theme of climate-health data in Africa focusing on the evidence that can be provided by the SOSCHI indicators. An evidence brief was drawn up from the session.
Upcoming events
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15-19 June 2026 – The SOSCHI team will be attending and presenting at the DHIS2 2026 Annual Conference. Our presentation, “Integrating Climate and Health Statistics,” will contribute to this global event, which brings together DHIS2 implementers, developers, government representatives, donors, technical partners, and other stakeholders to share experiences, showcase innovations, and strengthen partnerships.
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16-18 June 2026 – Our partner, RIPS Ghana, is hosting the 8th International Climate Change and Population Conference on Africa (CCPOP – Ghana 2026).
- 25 June 2026 – The SOSCHI team will be participating at the ATACH High-Level Event. This in-person event is hosted by the Ministry of Health of France, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the ATACH Secretariat. The meeting is held under the auspices of France’s G7 Presidency and brings together key stakeholders to advance climate and health action.
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