European Healthcare Climate Summit 2020

In November 2020, HCWH Europe held its second annual European Healthcare Climate summit. Sustainable healthcare professionals from all over the world came together virtually to hear from sustainable healthcare leaders and learn more about Operation Zero, our groundbreaking new climate project, and offer their valuable input into its development. Featured presentations are available below.

Read a full summary of the event in this report

Background

In 2020, NHS England announced its commitment to becoming a net zero national health service by 2045. NHS England is not just the first system to make this commitment, but their ambition is also world-leading by including all emissions, including those outside their direct control, such as supply chain and patient/visitor transport. This is a clear example of a national health system recognising its broader impacts on climate, accepting its responsibility, and taking action.

Operation Zero

Health Care Without Harm is embarking on an ambitious project to develop the first global route map for the decarbonisation of healthcare. In Europe, our vision is that every European country develops a national decarbonisation plan for its healthcare sector, that charts a 'Paris compatible' course for net zero emissions. To that end HCWH Europe has developed the Operation Zero project, which aims to establish:

A European overview of healthcare emissions, highlighting key carbon hotspots and common opportunities for reduction
A framework that can be applied by any national health system/ministry to develop a national-level roadmap to net zero emission.

During the European Healthcare Climate Summit 2020, HCWH Europe presented an overview of the project and its timeline; attendees gave valuable feedback to support the development of this project.