Health workers, policymakers need to learn how to mitigate the sector’s own climate footprint: Dr Alexander Thomas

Dr Alexander Thomas, President, Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI)

The Constitution of India incorporates provisions guaranteeing everyone’s right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. We need to have efficient and accountable health systems, which are inclusive and are in consonance with sustainable development goals.

For example, we cannot isolate society from the environment we live. Climate change, a hot topic in today’s world, is rapidly increasing the burden on the global health sector. However, the health sector, whose responsibility is to protect and improve human health, itself makes a major contribution towards the greenhouse gas emissions causing the climate crisis, the greatest health threat of the 21st century.

Health workers and policymakers need to understand this link and learn how to mitigate the health sector’s own climate footprint. To this end, the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI) and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) are bringing out a publication titled Heal the World: Climate Change and the Health Sector, a book on how to make India’s health sector operationally climate- smart and reduce its carbon footprint, while simultaneously making it climate-resilient and preparing it to manage the health impacts of climate change.