In 2022 the World Health Organization established the Alliance for Transformative Action for Climate and Health (ATACH) to realize the ambition set at COP26 using the collective power of WHO Member States and other stakeholders. As of May 2023, 65 countries - 22 of which are committing to net zero health systems - have joined ATACH, where Health Care Without Harm sits on the Steering Committee. 

In May 2022, G7 health ministers publicly committed “to build environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral health systems at the latest by 2050 and to support other countries in this effort.” Collectively, the overlapping commitments made by ATACH and the G7 comprise nearly half (48%) of global health care climate emissions.

Health Care Without Harm Europe worked closely with Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Lazio region of Italy to guide the development of this methodology and support them in generating their own detailed climate footprint analyses and decarbonisation roadmaps. Portugal’s national healthcare decarbonization roadmap is already available.

Latin America

Colombia: In 2022, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and Health Care Without Harm signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to estimate the climate footprint of the Colombian national health system at the facility level.

The project has three main components: identifying a representative sample of hospitals and health centers in the Colombian health system, training health institutions in the sample to use Climate Impact Checkup GHG calculator, and support institutions to gather and report their data to determine the size and composition of their climate footprint.

Based on the findings, a series of specific recommendations will help develop a Comprehensive Sectoral Climate Change Management Plan (PIGCCS) for the Colombian health sector. 

Other countries: Health Care Without Harm has partnered with government institutions in Peru, Mexico and Chile to conduct trainings for groups of public health facilities on the use of the Climate Impact Checkup tool and carbon footprint baselining.

Africa

South Africa: The National Department of Health has convened and National Climate and Health Steering committee. The first meeting took place on the 23rd of March and Terms of Reference is being finalized with the establishment of the committee. In addition; an Air Quality Forum is also convened by National Department of Health to address air quality in the Highveld Priority Area. Health Care Without Harm’s strategic partner in Africa, groundWork is working closely with the Environmental Health team on both of these. The National Department of Health visited several Global Green Healthy Hospital members across South Africa to engage on their sustainability work.

North America

United States: On Earth Day 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the Health Sector Climate Pledge, a voluntary commitment to climate resilience and emissions reduction that includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Health Care Without Harm has encouraged its health system partners in the United States to join this pledge, and to utilize the growing set of related resources made available by the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), while also helping them to meet the pledge commitments.

One year after the introduction of the pledge, more than 100 U.S. health care organizations representing more than 800 hospitals had signed the pledge, including more than 700 hospitals in the Practice Greenhealth network. Additionally, more than 200 federal hospitals and health facilities in the United States are committed to decarbonizing their buildings, following an Executive Order for all federal facilities to reduce their emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.