Global | As Paris Agreement takes effect, health care leaders join to turn promise into climate action

Global | As Paris Agreement takes effect, health care leaders join to turn promise into climate action

With the Paris Agreement recently having entered into force, just in time before the start of COP22, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is mobilizing hospitals and health systems around the world to be leaders in implementing the Paris treaty by fostering green, low carbon, climate resilient health care. With this being the initial step, HCWH is also calling on health systems to be carbon neutral by 2050.

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UK | UK Health Alliance on Climate Change welcomes government’s coal phase-out plan

UK | UK Health Alliance on Climate Change welcomes government’s coal phase-out plan

The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) welcomed the UK government’s plan to phase-out coal use by 2025. As set out in their report ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, a complete end to UK coal use would prevent 1,600 premature deaths and save up to £3.1bn in costs due to ill health per year.

Pauline Castres, the UKHACC’s Policy and Communications Officer, writing in BMJ Blogs, said:

The UK’s metamorphosis from a coal-dependent nation to a zero-coal country could be an inspiration for countries questioning the feasibility …

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Global | New film showcases health care’s mission to protect people and the planet

Global | New film showcases health care’s mission to protect people and the planet

As part of our 20th anniversary celebration, Health Care Without Harm is excited to release Do No Harm, a short film telling the inspiring story of this global movement.

Once upon a time, a small group of doctors, nurses, and health care leaders realized that, in violation of the Hippocratic Oath to “first, do no harm”, some hospital practices were harming patients and the planet. This small effort grew into a global movement advocating for change on the critical environmental health issues of our time. As …

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Global | Health Care Without Harm celebrates 20 years of protecting health and environment

Global | Health Care Without Harm celebrates 20 years of protecting health and environment

Celebrating Health Care Without Harm’s 20th anniversary, Gary Cohen reflects on the last two decades in the environmental health movement and offers an opportunity for health care to redefine its role in the 21st century.

When we started Health Care Without Harm, we hardly knew anyone who worked in the health care sector. We were mostly outsiders, community activists who had been working for decades in the environmental movement. But we knew we needed powerful allies to transform this emerging science linking the environment to our …

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Global | IEA report: Small increase in energy investment could halve air pollution deaths by 2040

Global | IEA report: Small increase in energy investment could halve air pollution deaths by 2040

Each year an estimated 6.5 million deaths are linked to air pollution, with the number set to increase significantly in coming decades unless the energy sector takes greater action to curb emissions, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Source: IEA based on WHO data

In its first ever in-depth analysis of air quality, the IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) special report highlights the links between energy, air pollution and health. It identifies contributions the energy sector can make to curb poor air …

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England | Over £400m of savings can reduce carbon emissions by 1 million tonnes

England | Over £400m of savings can reduce carbon emissions by 1 million tonnes

The National Health Service from England (NHS) and wider health sector could save up to £414m and cut 1 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year by 2020 through making changes that can also benefit people’s health.

A new report by the Sustainable Development Unit for NHS England and Public Health England selected 35 areas and calculated their financial and environmental benefits.

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US | Harvard study finds $33b annual net benefit from a power plant carbon standard

US | Harvard study finds $33b annual net benefit from a power plant carbon standard

CC BY-NC 2.0 Robert S. Donovan via Flickr

Nearly all U.S. regions stand to gain health and economic benefits from power plant carbon standards similar to the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s climate change plan, according to a new study by scientists from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Syracuse University, Resources for the Future, and the Harvard Forest, Harvard University as a project of the Science Policy Exchange.

In the study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the …

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US | Dignity Health CEO: More Needs To Be Done To Prioritize Climate Change

US | Dignity Health CEO: More Needs To Be Done To Prioritize Climate Change

25 February 2016 — Lloyd Dean, president and CEO of Dignity Health, one of the United States’ largest health systems, wrote in Health Affairs Blog about the health care industry’s “moral responsibility to address climate change head-on.” Below we highlight some particularly powerful excerpts on the role of the health care industry in leading the way to a healthy climate.

On hospitals reducing their carbon emissions and increasing use of renewable energy:

Although progress has been slow, more and more hospitals are recognizing the importance of going green and hospitals are instituting …

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Global | HCWH Applauds New Paris Treaty and Calls on Health Sector to Mobilize for Implementation

Global | HCWH Applauds New Paris Treaty and Calls on Health Sector to Mobilize for Implementation

“The Paris climate agreement is a prescription for a healthy planet that can address the world’s greatest public health threat. Now we will need to go on a crash renewable energy and low carbon diet that both stabilizes the climate and reduces diseases related to our addiction to fossil fuels.” Gary Cohen, President, Health Care Without Harm

The new Paris climate treaty is far from perfect, but it takes a major step to move the world away from fossil fuels and toward 100% clean, renewable energy in …

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US | Dignity Health to Limit Investments in Thermal Coal Energy

US | Dignity Health to Limit Investments in Thermal Coal Energy

SAN FRANCISCO–Dignity Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems, today announced it will restrict investments in thermal coal companies, and expand investments in sustainability-focused asset managers and investment opportunities addressing climate change. The non-profit health system has recently strengthened its advocacy efforts by urging portfolio managers to include environmental sustainability into their investment decisions. This new screen against thermal coal has led Dignity Health to divest its holdings in a number of companies, and to restrict further investment in the industry. Read more via Business Wire

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