Climate Week NYC introduced its first-ever health program this year, highlighting the critical health issues we face in the climate crisis. We can identify vulnerabilities, promote resilience, encourage collaboration, and drive policy change by prioritizing health in climate discussions. Connecting health and climate action enables us to create a more sustainable, equitable future for all.
Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth were thrilled to send a team of 10 staff members to Climate Week NYC last week – our largest contingent to date – to integrate health into the conversation, bridge gaps between sectors, focus on climate solutions that enhance public health, and ensure health is considered in efforts to develop resilient health systems.
Here are some highlights from our busy week!
Announced a commitment with the Clinton Global Initiative & the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions to accelerate climate action
During Climate Week, Health Care Without Harm and the United Nations Climate Change High-Level Champions announced a commitment with the Clinton Global Initiative to double the number of health care organizations worldwide working to achieve net-zero emissions while enhancing climate resilience. This will positively impact the health of the 100 million people these hospitals serve and help safeguard access to health care.
“For the first time, we are linking for the health care sector two key global climate campaigns, Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, both led by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions,” said Health Care Without Harm’s international climate director, Diana Picon Manyari. “By joining, hospitals will be able to bridge mitigation and adaptation and chart a path to halve emissions by 2030.”
Building sustainable, climate-resilient health care: Insights across sectors
Health insurers
We hosted two closed-door meetings with pioneering groups of international and domestic health insurers to explore their role in mitigating and responding to the climate and health crisis. The international roundtable was co-convened with Bupa at UNGA Goals House, and the domestic working group meeting was held with Blue Shield of California.
Governments, businesses, and NGOs
Our chief program officer, Emmie Mediate, took part in a conversation hosted by Economist Impact that explored the intersection of health systems and the climate crisis. The event aimed to promote collaboration among leaders from the government, health care organizations, private companies, and non-governmental organizations to build resilience.
Participants discussed ways to build sustainable, climate-resilient health care systems to better anticipate, prepare for, and mitigate climate-related health risks.
Read our new climate resilience planning guidance for health care
Health care systems
Mediate also participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by Axios on health care’s climate impact and sustainable innovation within the health care sector.
Explore insights from this critical conversation
Global partners
Josh Karliner, Health Care Without Harm’s global director of strategy & international partnerships, participated in a panel discussion organized by Foreign Policy, “Health Systems in a Warming World: From Insights to Action.” He joined panelists from Bupa and the World Health Organization for this important conversation.
A few words from our founder…
“I’m incredibly proud of the work that Health Care Without Harm has done to come to this moment, this inflection point, where we have brought many different people together, we’ve been on many different stages, and we’ve partnered with so many different entities, and been part of so many different collaborations. And people all want to work with us, because we’ve been in this space longer than anybody else, and we have a clear vision of where the health sector needs to move.”
– Gary Cohen, president and founder