We pledge to do our part to meet the challenge posed by climate change —a test perhaps as great as human civilization has ever known—by taking the following steps:
1. Prevention: Mitigating Our Own Climate Footprint:
Our collective vision is to reduce our healthcare systems’ emissions, moving toward low carbon, and ultimately, carbon neutral healthcare. Many hospitals in most parts of the world are major energy consumers and can make large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Other hospitals and health systems are energy-starved, and can deploy renewable energy to foster greater access to healthcare and better health outcomes.
We pledge to lead the way toward low-carbon healthcare by setting greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy targets and to increase our ambition thereafter. We will work to implement energy efficiency measures and, when feasible, deploy clean renewable energy to power our buildings. We will measure and report on our progress, including financial savings related to these actions. We will also seek to identify our institutions’ other climate impacts, including transportation systems, use of anesthetic gases, purchasing policies, waste generation and disposal. We will develop and implement plans to reduce these impacts as well.
The most ambitious among us also commit to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Race to Zero as part of our participation in the Health Care Climate Challenge. This means we are committing to achieving a 50% reduction in our measurable greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 at the latest for high emitters or a fair contribution in line with the requirements of a 1.5C world, and net zero emissions 2050 or earlier.
2. Preparedness: Building Resilience to Withstand and Respond to the Climate Crisis:
In order to serve our communities, hospitals and health centres need to remain operational during and after an extreme weather event. We need to understand, anticipate, and be equipped to manage the health needs of our immediate community and prepare for shifting disease patterns. We pledge to prepare for the impacts of climate change by becoming more resilient to increasing incidents of extreme weather. We will work to implement a series of measures to assure that our physical infrastructure, staff, and communities are prepared for the immediate impact of extreme weather events, and the longer term impacts of changing patterns of disease, as well as other climate impacts, combining these efforts with low-carbon solutions whenever possible.
3. Leadership: Forging the Way for a Healthy Climate:
As healthcare providers respected by local communities, government, and business, we commit to provide leadership in our societies for a healthy climate. We pledge to do so by educating healthcare professionals and hospital staff, as well as the communities in which we are located, on the challenges and solutions related to climate and health. We also pledge to encourage public policy, economic development and investment strategies that move our societies away from fossil fuel dependency and foster instead a healthy energy future, thereby protecting local and global health from fossil fuel combustion and climate change.
By moving toward climate-smart, low carbon health systems, health care can mitigate its own climate impact, save money and lead by example. By becoming more resilient, healthcare can help prepare for the growing impacts of climate change. And by providing societal leadership we can help forge a vision of a future with healthy hospitals and healthy people living on a healthy planet.
At this crucial juncture, the time to act to protect public health from climate change is now.
