As the health impacts of climate change are increasingly felt in Europe, the urgency for action is growing. Health must be at the heart of both adaptation and mitigation measures. This was a key takeaway from a recent conference organised by the ENBEL project. The conference helped to strengthen the necessary cross-sectoral collaboration by bringing together climate change and health researchers, practitioners and decision-makers to protect people’s health and advance the European adaptation agenda. For more key policy messages from speakers at the ENBEL conference, visit ENBEL website ENBEL is a Horizon 2020 project aimed at linking health research and climate change.