European Healthcare Climate Summit 2019

In September 2019 HCWH Europe held the first annual European Healthcare Climate Summit, which saw over 100 sustainable healthcare leaders from 15 countries come together to share their experiences of tackling climate change in the European healthcare sector and learn about Climate-smart Healthcare in Europe.

As well as contributing to the development of a Climate-smart Healthcare Roadmap for 2030 - attendees heard from leaders in sustainable healthcare - photographs from the summit and featured presentations are available below.

You can also read a summary of the event in this report

Access the European Healthcare Climate Summit photo album

The health sector is on the frontline when it comes to dealing with the ever-increasing effects of climate change; and yet the sector with a unique healing mission is also contributing to the problem through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its activities, undermining the health of the very populations it seeks to heal. The summit was also an opportunity to share Health Care Without Harm's recently published landmark report providing the most comprehensive global analysis of healthcare’s contribution to climate change to date. Climate change not only damages the environment and human health, but also threatens the sustainability of our healthcare systems in Europe.

During the Summit, attendees gave their valuable input to in developing our new 2030 Roadmap for Climate-smart Healthcare in Europe. This roadmap will set out a new sector-wide vision and framework for action, creating momentum to accelerate progress towards effective climate action within the European health sector focused on our three Climate-smart healthcare goals:

Leadership – working towards system and supply chain transformation to drive innovation and change, and leveraging the voice of healthcare professionals to raise awareness and encourage wider community action on climate change.
Mitigation – mobilising greater action on CO₂ reduction at an organisational level, with more rapid investment in carbon abatement solutions, greater clinical participation in carbon reduction efforts, and decarbonisation of the supply chain.
Resilience – equipping health providers with the tools and insight needed to become more resilient to the worst predicted impacts of climate change and empowering communities to do the same.