Our teams at Health Care Without Harm, the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals network and our strategic partners around the world are working to support health care professionals by providing strategies, solutions, and resources that address the unique challenges health care professionals are facing. As part of this effort, we developed a Coronavirus Resource Center for our partners, for members of our Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network, and for the broader community engaged at the intersection of environment, climate change and health.
As we support our communities in managing the immediate threats, we are also exploring the long-term influence of COVID-19 on health care and environmental sustainability, and the path forward.
Factors such as air pollution, lack of access to health care, as well as basic sanitation services as water, aggravate the problem. The most vulnerable – individuals with underlying health conditions, people living in extreme poverty, and the marginalized and displaced – are at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses.
We must strengthen our resilience to future pandemics as well, climate-crisis related disasters by strengthening our health systems. We must also reduce these crises impacts on people and the planet by promoting a just transition to clean, renewable energy and transport, supporting sustainable agriculture and forestry, investing in climate-smart health systems, and by advocating for policies that address the social and environmental determinants of health.