CleanMed Europe

Plenary 3 - Climate Smart Healthcare

Climate change is damaging human health today and will have a greater impact in the future. The Lancet has called it the "biggest global health threat of the 21st century".

Direct climate impacts, such as the spread of vector borne disease, increased heat, drought, severe storms and flooding, as well as the mass migration of climate refugees have health consequences that will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and marginalised populations and increase in intensity over time.

At the same time, the main driver of climate change - fossil fuel combustion - is causing major health problems now, contributing to air pollution that kills more than six million people a year, roughly twice as many people as HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB combined.

While vastly differing in scale, each nation’s health sector releases greenhouse gases while delivering care and procuring products and technologies from a carbon-intensive supply chain. Healthcare contributes to carbon emissions through energy consumption, transport, and products manufactured, used, and disposed of.

This plenary will examine how the healthcare sector around the world can act to protect public health from climate change through:

• Mitigation - by moving toward low carbon health systems, health care can mitigate its own climate impact, save money and lead by example

• Resilience - by becoming more resilient, health care can help prepare for the growing impacts of climate change

• Leadership - by providing societal leadership the health sector can help forge a vision of a future with healthy hospitals and healthy people living on a healthy planet

These will be discussed in the framework of “Climate-Smart Healthcare”, a term coined in a 2017 World Bank report (co-produced with HCWH) of the same name.

 - indicates presentation available

Speakers

Sonia Roschnik - Director, Sustainable Development Unit for the NHS and wider health sector in England

*Unfortunately Sonia Roschnik can no longer attend CleanMed Europe 2018, we apologise for any inconvenience.

Sonia Roschnik has worked in health and social care internationally for 30 years as a clinician, in senior hospital management, and in sustainability. She is committed to the transformations needed for a sustainable and healthy planet for all.

Vladimir Kendrovski - Technical Officer for Climate Change and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe

 Can health care help prepare for the growing impacts of climate change?

Vladimir Kendrovski is a specialist in hygiene, environment, and health, Vladimir served at the Macedonian National Institute for Public Health before joining the World Health Organization in 2012. He is an environmental health scientist and public health practitioner working on public health adaptation to climate change. 

Nick Thorp - Network Director, Global Green and Healthy Hospitals project - HCWH

 Climate mitigation

Nick Thorp is Network Director for the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) project at Health Care Without Harm. In this role, he works with GGHH staff around the globe to engage members, build communities of support, and connect them to the tools and resources that can best assist them in achieving their sustainability goals.

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