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The Climate Emergency and Zero-Carbon Healthcare
Published in Vincent La Placa, Julia Morgan, Social Science Perspectives on Global Public Health, 2023
This chapter has explored the responsibility of the health sector to reduce the impacts of climate change by aligning its actions and development trajectory with the Paris Agreement. We have highlighted that increasing resilience to climate change will require adopting a culture of continual improvement in the value that health services provide, to maximise health outcomes, while reducing environmental, social, and financial costs (‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability). To achieve this in the context of rising demand and pressure on healthcare services, lean methodology, low carbon medical practice, and moving to a single-payer system may reduce administrative costs, governance-related waste, and help healthcare transition to net-zero emissions. Public health planners and policy makers at national, regional, and local levels need to consider health, a central dimension of climate change mitigation activities.
Feminist contributions to climate change research, policy and ethics
Published in Wendy A. Rogers, Jackie Leach Scully, Stacy M. Carter, Vikki A. Entwistle, Catherine Mills, The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics, 2022
While the majority of empirical studies of gender and climate change focus on adaptation, a smaller but growing number of studies focus on mitigating climate change. Climate change mitigation is pursued through strategies and actions that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming. Much of the focus of these initiatives has thus centered on promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable transportation, land use and forest conservation under the claim of promoting green growth and a green economy. While governments and international organizations have progressed at slow pace in integrating gender considerations in climate change mitigation, feminists have been quick to highlight the dangers of mainstream initiatives to green the economy that ignore power and gender dynamics (Wright 2010; Wichterich 2015; Littig 2017; Di Chiro 2019).
From Public Health Emergency Preparedness to Resilience
Published in Emily Ying Yang Chan, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters, 2017
Since the millennium, the climate change mitigation policies with anticipated health co-benefits are likely to gain widespread public support. However, to ensure “health” and “health co-benefits from environmentally friendly behaviours” are integrated into planning and implementation of these climate change mitigation efforts, technical knowledge, strong political will, good multi-sectoral partnerships and proactive leadership are needed. Mitigation actions with the most benefits to health should be prioritised over other competing issues. The potential long-term mitigation cost is relatively small when compared to an anticipated cost-saving in health systems from the health benefits, such as prevented deaths, diseases and disabilities (WHO, 2014). Proactive inclusion and engagement of the health sector are a key strategy to ensure a fair assessment of costs can be conducted. Cost-benefit assessments are important for policy decision-making and health benefits should be considered as “offsets” or “trade-offs” from the initial cost of mitigation investment.
Occupation and environmental sustainability: A scoping review
Published in Journal of Occupational Science, 2022
Human activity is regarded as the driving force behind rising global temperatures (Cook et al., 2016) via the creation of greenhouse gases through human occupations such as agriculture, industrialization, deforestation, and the use of fossil fuels (Cubasch et al., 2013). Rising global temperatures are expected to destabilize the world’s ecosystems, as well as negatively impact human health and well-being. Altering human activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to avoid a global temperature increase of 1.5°C that would result in rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and ecosystem collapse (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018). Thus, adaptation of human occupational patterns and lifestyles will ultimately determine the state of human and ecosystem health. Furthermore, climate change mitigation is essential in addressing poverty as rising global temperatures have resulted in natural disasters, which disproportionately affect the safety and well-being of those who reside in low- and middle-income countries, otherwise known as the majority world (Allen et al., 2018).
The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence, and its Implications
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2022
Emma L. Lawrance, Rhiannon Thompson, Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Lisa Page, Neil Jennings
Reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels in industry and transport leads to reductions in air pollution in surrounding areas with associated benefits to mental health (229,230,232,233) as outlined in section 3.5.1. Reducing personal car use and promoting active transport options in urban areas are likely to form key components of climate change mitigation policies in the years ahead. Active travel, such as walking or cycling, can improve physical activity levels, and enable social activities and employment opportunities that may otherwise be impossible (488,489). This is particularly true for those on low incomes (488,489). Beyond the physical health benefits of greater physical activity, there is evidence of positive impacts on mental health and wellbeing from, for example, active commuting on foot or by bike (490–496).
Climate change mitigation: Qualitative analysis of environmental impact-reducing strategies in German primary care
Published in European Journal of General Practice, 2023
Valeska Fehrer, Regina Poß-Doering, Aline Weis, Michel Wensing, Joachim Szecsenyi, Nicola Litke
The direct and indirect impacts of climate change are far-reaching for the health of populations and societies [1]. The Lancet Commission proposed to track and work on the complex association between health and climate change. They address climate change mitigation, including ways to reduce the carbon footprint to minimise its impact [1]. The WHO defines climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable healthcare facilities to ‘anticipate, respond to, cope with, recover from and adapt to climate-related shocks and stresses while minimising negative impacts on the environment and leveraging opportunities to restore and improve it’ [2,3].