Calling for climate-smart health care
Recommendations for the incoming Biden-Harris administration
The outbreak of COVID-19 complicated the response to climate-driven extreme weather events, from providing cooling centers for extreme heat while maintaining social distancing to having enough N95 masks for both health care workers and firefighters. The good news is there are common solutions to addressing both crises that will support the needed economic recovery, build a more resilient health care system, and address the health and economic disparities in the United States.
The health care sector is responsible for 8.5% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions with hospitals generating over one-third of those emissions. But health care facilities can implement changes to decrease their emissions while reducing operating costs and promoting climate resiliency in their facilities and the communities they serve.
Our recommendations for the Biden-Harris transition team represent the key actions that the new administration, as well as Congress, can take immediately to build a more resilient health care system, mitigate the carbon footprint of health care operations, contribute to a sustainable and just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensure all communities are resilient to the impacts of climate change.
The linchpin of the set of recommendations is for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a comprehensive national strategic action plan to address the physical and operational risks associated with climate change that threaten public health systems and health care facilities. The action plan should also work to assist communities, public health departments, and rural hospitals in preparing for and responding to the public health risks of the climate crisis, including mental health and food insecurity. This strategic planning process must provide for meaningful public input, particularly from vulnerable communities and frontline workers.
Other core recommendations include:
- Require health care facilities to prepare for extreme weather events based on the most current climate projections, and enable hospitals and other health facilities to be epicenters of community resilience.
- Provide technical assistance and financial support to help hospitals, health care professionals, first responders, and community members develop climate preparedness and response plans.
- Ensure the climate resilience of veterans’ health systems to provide uninterrupted health care to the nation’s veterans and set a standard for other health systems.
- Provide funding, tax incentives, and financing that health care facilities can use to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and invest in clean energy and resilience.
- Restore and enhance participation from the United States in the World Health Organization.
Additionally, the U.S. Congress has an important legislative role to play by directing and increasing funds to HHS to develop a national health care decarbonization strategy in line with our nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement and the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
We support the full set of recommendations in the health sections of both the House Select Committee report “Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy, Resilient, and Just America” and the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee report “The Case for Climate Action: Building A Clean Economy For The American People.” We were pleased to have the opportunity to provide substantial input to the health care focused sections of these reports with our U.S. Health Care Climate Council members. Our more targeted recommendations are to ensure we do not overlook the health care sector in implementing innovative climate solutions that inspire and support others to act, while successfully directing the transformation needed to foster climate-smart health care.
You can read our priority set of recommendations here.
