December 11, 2024

Climate and Health Alliance

Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum

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The Climate and Health Alliance/GGHH Pacific Region and Hunter New England Local Health District are partnering to bring the annual Greening the Healthcare Sector Forum to Newcastle for the first time. The event will take place at the Hunter Medical Research Institute on Awabakal country. The full experience will also be available online.

The Forum will provide an opportunity for connection, knowledge sharing, learning and upskilling. Content will be relevant for people working in, or connected with, the health sector in Australia and New Zealand.

The Forum will inspire hope, sharing current research, practice and policy to support the transition to net zero and environmentally sustainable healthcare. The theme of this year’s Forum is “Driving systems change for sustainable healthcare”.

To find out more, or to register, visit the Climate and Health Alliance website.

Health care contributes 7% to Australia’s carbon emissions – but health is missing from our COP26 plan

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Australia finally has a net zero plan at the Commonwealth level. But so far, health hasn’t been factored into Australia’s national climate response. The federal government has yet to announce plans specific to the sector or, more broadly, the health of Australians.

This is despite experts warning climate inaction is putting lives at risk and could overwhelm our health system, and Australia’s health sector accounting for 7% of the country’s carbon emissions.

Countries are expected to arrive in Glasgow for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, with dramatically scaled up commitments to those they pledged in Paris in 2015.

And health is clearly on the agenda. The UK government has announced a COP26 Health Programme, calling on governments to commit to climate resilience and low-carbon health systems.

But when it comes to how the health sector is affected by, and contributes to, emissions, Australia’s response is missing in action.

Australia’s report card

The COP26 Health Programme’s rationale is that climate change is driving poorer health outcomes, increasing deaths, and health inequities.

But health systems are well placed to be a significant part of the solution and can:

  • motivate stronger global ambition to reduce emissions
  • help protect people from negative impacts of climate change
  • and make a substantial contribution to reducing national and global emissions.

Australia is one of the most climate-vulnerable places on Earth. A hotter and more hostile climate spells dangers for the human population as well as the natural world. Extreme heat is impacting worker productivity, affecting outdoor community and sporting activities, and driving critical workforces, like doctors, away from the Northern Territory.

Health impacts of bushfires and smoke pollution and other extreme weather drives up demand for urgent health care. And as we have seen, infectious diseases like COVID can render our societies inoperable.

Novel viruses and infectious diseases like COVID are expected to increase in a warming world, and made even more likely due to human-caused destruction of natural environments (to feed our unsustainable appetite for “growth”) that otherwise provide a buffer against disease.

And as we now know, when health-care systems are struggling to manage a crisis like COVID, many other health problems get ignored, leading to worsening health outcomes from other causes.

A recent analysis of Australian policy reveals little recognition at the Commonwealth level of the health impacts of climate change. Policy action is only just getting under way at state and territory level.

The federal government’s net zero by 2050 pamphlet, The Australian Way, doesn’t address the risks and opportunities for the health sector, despite its significant contribution to national emissions. This emission contribution is largely from public and private hospitals, which have huge energy demands, largely met by coal-powered electricity. Also, the production of pharmaceuticals is extremely energy intensive.

Australia’s failure to address the health impacts of climate change in its climate plan recently scored it 0/15 compared to other countries by the Global Climate and Health Alliance ahead of COP26.

The Australian government had not integrated health into its climate policies on any of the five measures: health impacts, health in adaptation measures, health co-benefits, economics and finance, or overall.

Australia’s update to the National Climate Resilience and Climate Adaptation Strategy (released quietly, ahead of COP26) mentions health and well-being. But it firmly hands responsibility to state, territory and local governments.

So far, the Queensland government has led the way. It developed a Human Health and Wellbeing Climate Adaptation Plan in 2018, offering high level guidance for managing the health risks of climate change and realising the benefits of climate action.

Victoria recently released a draft Health and Human Services Adaptation Action Plan, as part of its commitments under the state’s Climate Change Act.

In Western Australia, a year-long Climate and Health Inquiry led to a comprehensive 2020 report. Climate action is necessary, the McGowan government said, “for health system sustainability and [because] the benefits of change far outweigh costs when health is factored in”. Implementation is yet to commence.

New South Wales supports human health and social impact research at the University of Sydney, but is yet to release an adaptation plan or strategy.

Other states have announced initiatives but no state-wide plans, yet.

Change from the ground up

Despite an absence of guiding policy, the vast majority of public hospitals and health services in Australia have joined Global Green and Healthy Hospitals. This is an international network of health institutions working to reduce their carbon and environmental footprint. Queensland Health, Victorian Department of Health and the ACT Health Directorate are also members.

Without the national coordination called for by health groups, this could lead to a fragmented approach, limit effective adaptation and likely drive up costs.

Last week, over 50 health groups offered over 175 recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ways that protect and promote health and well-being. They include legislating a 75% cut in emissions by 2030, rapidly phasing out fossil fuels and transport, and decarbonising health care by 2035.

While federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the federal government’s plan is “good for health”, health stakeholders are less convinced.

Most countries now have national climate and health plans.

A leadership vacuum

The recent COP26 Health Roundtable for Australian, New Zealand and Fiji health ministries was attended by seven of the eight states and territories – Tasmania and the federal government didn’t attend.

The roundtable aimed to encourage national and subnational governments to make commitments to developing climate-health adaptation plans and low carbon and sustainable health care.

Fiji has made such commitments, which will be announced in Glasgow by World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus on November 9. But none of Australia’s state, territory or national representatives have yet made the pledge.

The global health community is watching closely. Some 450 organisations, representing 45 million health workers in 102 countries, signed a letter sent to all national leaders attending COP26 calling for health to be included in all national climate plans.

The WHO has released a report, The Health Argument for Climate Action, with a set of ten priority actions for governments.

These include:

  • aligning climate and public health commitments in their COVID recovery plans
  • putting health at the centre of the global climate talks
  • and prioritising climate interventions that deliver the largest health, social and economic gains.

We hope the Australian government, and all leaders in Glasgow, are listening.The Conversation

Fiona Armstrong, Executive Director, Climate and Health Alliance; Honorary Associate, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Health orgs back climate action in National Preventive Health Strategy 

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32 health organisations have jointly released a statement calling on the Federal Health Minister to address climate change in the National Preventive Health Strategy, which is currently under development.  

The coalition of doctors, nurses, allied health and consumers called on the minister to make climate change “a central feature of any broad national health strategy.” 

“Climate change affects health in many ways, both directly and indirectly,” the statement said.  

“Without drastic and urgent action, the health impacts of climate change will escalate and lead to an existential crisis for human civilisation.” 

Fiona Armstrong, the executive director of the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) who spearheaded the joint statement, said that “If the government chooses to ignore the health impacts of climate change, they are refusing to prevent the suffering of thousands of Australians.” 

She lists the impacts as including increased incidences of infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, heat stress, mental illness, violence, food insecurity, poor water quality and poorer nutrition.” 

Dr Gemma Crawford from the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) echoed the sentiments, calling climate change “the biggest threat to the health of our families, communities and planet.” 

“We welcome a national blueprint for prevention. But our collective efforts will be undermined if we fail to recognise the impacts of climate change.” 

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association will be participating in the School Strike 4 Climate on 25 September to call for strong action on climate change.  

Nurses and midwives deliver FAIL verdict on Liberals’ plan

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The Climate and Health Alliance’s (CAHA) scorecard has delivered a scathing review of the Liberals’ and Nationals’ plan for climate and health.

In the release of their Election scorecard, the Alliance has scored both Coalition parties a 0/8 on a range of matters, including a National Strategy for Climate, Health and Wellbeing, to stronger air pollution laws.

CAHA noted that Government inaction on climate change and environmental outcomes was “costing lives”.

“We hope the Liberals and Nationals don’t leave it too much longer to put themselves on the right side of history [in regards to climate change]”, said CAHA Executive Director Fiona Armstrong.

In their scorecard, the Alliance scored the Labor party 4.5/8, while the Greens topped the table with full marks.

Climate and Health Alliance Scorecard

You can read more about the Climate and Health Alliance’s scorecard here.

United push for national action on climate and health

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Federal, state and territory governments have been urged to establish a Ministerial Health and Climate Change Forum to oversee coordinated national action to tackle the urgent health threats arising from climate change.

A landmark new report recommends that the Forum include ministers from each jurisdiction whose portfolios cover health, energy, the   environment, resources, emergency services, planning and infrastructure.

The Framework for a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Well-being for Australia, launched with tripartite support at an event at Parliament House in June, was developed by the Climate and Health Alliance with wide consultation across the health sector. The NSWNMA is a member of CAHA.

The strategy framework sets out a detailed road map for addressing the health risks of climate change, and is aimed at the health and other sectors that influence the determinants of health.

It calls for a national education and training framework to support health professionals in recognising, preparing for and responding to the health impacts of climate change, and for a national sustainable healthcare unit to be established within the Commonwealth Department of Health.

The framework also recommends that a new National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standard be developed, aimed at minimising the risks of climate change to patients and the delivery of safe, quality care.

This new NSQHS Standard would incorporate organisation-wide risk assessments and planning for risks such as surges in service demand, destruction of infrastructure and equipment, and interruptions to workforce availability.

The framework calls for mandatory standards prioritising climate resilience for health facility design, construction and ongoing management, and says the NHMRC and Medical Research Future Fund should establish climate change and health funding streams.

Speaking at the launch, Shadow Health Minister Catherine King pledged that a Labor government would draw on the framework in implementing a national strategy on climate, health and well-being.

The framework calls for a national educational campaign to inform communities about the health risks of climate change, health-protective adaptation strategies and the health benefits of reducing emissions and transitioning to a low carbon future.

It also recommends a national certification and labelling scheme for products to guide consumers towards low carbon choices, and an end to subsidies for fossil fuel-based energy industries.

Australia lags behind rest of world

At a roundtable meeting hosted by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association after the Parliament House launch, nursing organisations and leaders were among those groups urged to support action on the framework.

Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Debra Thoms was among the attendees at the roundtable meeting.

Fiona Armstrong, founder and executive director of CAHA, and a former nurse, said the health sector did not need to wait for Federal government leadership to start work on implementing the framework.

“We don’t necessarily need commitments from government to act, though they are obviously very useful; there is a lot that can be done in terms of implementing strategies,” she said.

The CAHA report notes that policies and frameworks to address climate change and health have been developed by the EU and in the US by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while the UK has implemented a policy for the NHS that includes both mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Armstrong warned that without such a national strategy or a mechanism to include health in climate policy decisions, Australia would fail its obligations under the Paris agreement.

At the launch, the Minister for Indigenous Health and for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, congratulated CAHA for providing “this important report”, and said he would discuss it further with Health Minister Greg Hunt.

“The independent voice of this strategy framework adds value to policy discussions,” he told the launch.

Senator Richard di Natale, leader of the Greens and a public health doctor, congratulated all who contributed to this “excellent” piece of work advocating for a national framework to support transformation across health systems.

“We are at a critical juncture right now; we know that we are facing catastrophic global warming,” he said.

Di Natale stressed the co-benefits to health of reducing emissions.

“When you transform your energy sector, when you transform your transport sector, when you make sure that you plan your cities in a way that encourages active transport and drives down emissions, you actually produce a range of other co-benefits,” he said.

“It means reductions in things like heart disease, and obesity, reductions in things like diabetes, and of course road deaths, injuries – and improved air quality.

Dr Liz Hanna

Human survival at stake

Dr Liz Hanna, president of CAHA and an academic at ANU, gave an alarming overview of the impacts of rising temperature upon health, now and into the future.

“It’s a human survival issue that we are facing. The health challenges are massive; the health sector needs to be prepared. It’s not only political will but getting the urgency of the message out to the community so it’s part of every decision they make with their own emissions,” she said.

CAHA is urging health professionals to engage with the campaign’s plan to create a climate health mentor for all MPs.

“Everyone needs to take some responsibility. This is a very complex problem, none of us can solve it on our own,” said Fiona Armstrong.

“The health sector can bring extraordinary expertise but we need to work together with policymakers and parliamentarians at all levels.”

Meanwhile, the AHHA has backed the framework’s calls for a new national standard to ensure health services plan for and address the impacts of climate change upon healthcare.

Alison Verhoeven, chief executive of the AHHA, said: “In terms of healthcare and hospitals, at AHHA we think climate change is a threat multiplier to a sector that is already under pressure.”

For More information

You can download the Framework for a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Well-being for Australia from the CAHA website:

www.caha.org.au/national-strategy-climate-health-wellbeing

You will also find an Advocacy Toolkit to provide you with everything you need to know for getting in touch with your local MP, plus other resources.

What you can do

  • Write to health, energy and environment ministers endorsing the framework and asking them to respond.
  • Seek a meeting with your local MP and ask them to advocate for a climate health strategy in parliament.
  • Talk to policy makers and health department representatives to ask what they will do to adopt the strategy.
  • Donate to CAHA’s work.

Health experts call for national strategy on climate change

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A new report released today following an extensive national consultation with health and medical groups stakeholders has revealed deep concerns about federal government inaction on climate change. There is overwhelming support for national action to promote health and welfare of all Australians in the face of increased climate risks.

This report details the outcomes from consultation with Australia’s health stakeholders, including professional health and hospital groups, health leaders, academics, scientists, parliamentarians and policymakers during 2016.

Consultation revealed deepening concerns about climate change within the health community and the desire for federal leadership for urgent action.

Extensive consultations over several months, including a national survey, an online discussion forum and a health leaders roundtable, enabled Australia’s health sector to respond and input into the proposal for a national strategy, put forward in a discussion paper released in June 2016.

Senior health leaders, researchers, academics, policy professionals as well as doctors, nurses, midwives, public health practitioners and psychologists from peak bodies and unions were virtually unanimous (98%) in their support.

CAHA Executive Director and report co-author Fiona Armstrong said the findings revealed that health professionals and leaders of health groups are acutely aware of the link between climate change and health, and recognise Australia’s current climate polices put people’s health at risk as well as being inconsistent with our international obligations, including those under the Paris Agreement.

Ms Armstrong said: “The Australian health community is driven by a deep value commitment to help drive low carbon transition and see action on climate change as an opportunity to reduce serious and current threats to people’s health, as well as an opportunity to improve health through low carbon strategies.

“A National Strategy on Climate Health and Wellbeing for Australia will provide a pathway for action and a framework against which we will hold our leaders accountable. The health professions are saying they want to work with parliamentarians and political parties to make the strategy happen.”

Download a copy of the Final Consultation Report.

Visit CAHA.

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