Pursuing such a decarbonization trajectory is a tall order, particularly as the pandemic continues to rage all around us. And it explores how low- and middle-income countries can invest in healthcare development, such as powering energy poor health facilities with renewable energy, that takes them on a pathway to zero emissions. It defines how wealthier countries - where health sectors are the most prominent climate polluters - must take the most rapid action to decarbonize. The Road Map shows how all countries must act. Achieving this cumulative reduction would be equivalent to eliminating one year of the entire world economy’s global greenhouse gas emissions output. The Road Map identifies more than 44 gigatons of emissions reduction that can be achieved over 36 years by moving the sector towards greater systems efficiency and a circular economy, while simultaneously decarbonizing healthcare-related buildings, electricity, travel, food consumption, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. If the health sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter on the planet. The Road Map effectively provides a plan and charts a course to get healthcare towards zero emissions across three pathways: healthcare delivery and operations, the global supply chain, and the broader economy. To support the sector in navigating this transformational change, Health Care Without Harm, together with the engineering firm Arup have forged a Global Road Map for Health Care Decarbonization. Such systems change is at once an enormous challenge and also a timely opportunity as the world prepares to emerge from the pandemic. It must do so while also striving to meet global health goals such as Universal Health Coverage. Instead, the health sector must reinvent itself to address climate crisis and align its growth and development with the goals of the Paris Agreement, setting a course towards net zero emissions by 2050. Under a business as usual scenario, healthcare’s climate footprint will grow enormously and triple between now and 2050. To provide context, if the health sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter on the planet. Specifically, healthcare’s climate footprint is equivalent to 4.4% of global net emissions (2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent). The climate crisis is a health crisis that could ultimately dwarf the impact of the pandemic One little understood yet important aspect of the climate and health connection is the paradoxical fact that the health sector itself, a significant player in the global economy, makes a massive contribution to the climate crisis and therefore has a vital role in resolving it. In this harsh light, millions of health professionals have called for a healthy recovery that focuses on climate prevention strategies that reduce the global economy’s reliance on fossil fuels while investing in clean, renewable energy and low-carbon health systems. Certainly, COVID, together with the wildfires, floods and other manifestations of a growing climate emergency, have made it abundantly clear that we need to retool healthcare to be both pandemic prepared and climate-ready. Yet while the pandemic rages on as the most serious health crisis in a century, perhaps the greatest health threat that both people and the planet face today is not the coronavirus, but rather the looming climate emergency.Ī growing movement in the health sector, ranging from the nurses and doctors on local hospital wards up to the World Health Organization (WHO), recognizes that the climate crisis is a health crisis that could ultimately dwarf the impact of the pandemic. This is the second Earth Day we have “celebrated” during the COVID-19 pandemic. A roadmap to zero emissions healthcare By Josh Karliner | April 22, 2021
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