Climate and Health Policy and Regulatory Agenda Paper Series
The NAM Climate Collaborative began its Climate and Health Policy and Regulatory Agenda Paper Series in 2023 which explores actionable strategies to accelerate decarbonization and resilience across the US health sector. These papers translate complex sustainability challenges into clear policy and practice recommendations for health care leaders, policymakers, and others. The series addresses a range of critical issues from integrating climate education into clinical training and empowering payers to drive sustainable transformation, to leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act to strengthen operational and financial resilience, reducing reliance on single-use plastics through updated infection prevention standards, and highlighting opportunities to modernize policies and eliminate unnecessary paper use. Collectively, these papers provide a foundation for systemic policy change to ensure the health sector not only adapts to the realities of a changing climate but also leads in mitigating its impact.
Opportunities for Strengthening Climate Education for Clinical Health Professionals
As we bear witness to increasing disease, injury, disruption, and displacement from a changing climate, health professional education is finally coalescing around the imperative to upgrade training programs to address this health threat. There remains a conspicuous knowledge gap within health care on basic environmental health linkages, health vulnerabilities susceptible to climate change, health care system sustainability and resiliency, and climate health communication and leadership. The authors review successful examples and demonstrable impacts of current efforts to scale-up a climate-savvy health care workforce and close with a review of opportunities ahead for this urgent educational movement.
The Role Of Payers In Achieving Environmentally Sustainable And Climate Resilient Health Care
Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a pace incompatible with avoiding the worst consequences of climate change. US health care emits about 8.5 percent of total national GHGs—more emissions than from the entire United Kingdom. As the health care sector transitions to a more resilient, environmentally sustainable system, payers can take more action to accelerate progress, given their role in facilitating health care system transformation. Authors propose five strategies that payers can deploy to achieve a more environmentally sustainable and climate resilient health care system.
How Health Care Organizations Can Use the Inflation Reduction Act to Reduce Costs, Enhance Resilience, and Lower Their Environmental Footprint
This paper provides health care organizations with tools to foster resilience and sustainability while curbing costs by accessing the suite of incentives provided in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, H. R. 5376). The IRA has immense potential to empower health care institutions to make tangible strides in mitigating their environmental footprint. This paper outlines several key components of this legislation to demonstrate how their implementation can enable hospitals to weather the current economic storms and pave the way for a greener and more sustainable future. By identifying and harnessing these important tools, health care organizations can actively contribute to both the well-being of their communities and the preservation of the planet.
Infection Prevention, Planetary Health, and Single-Use Plastics
Given the threats to human health from environmental contamination, climate change, and biodiversity loss, time is ripe to reduce overreliance on single-use disposables. Three strategies can accomplish this: (1) reforming national infection prevention guidelines, (2) updating reporting standards for infections related to single-use and reusable devices, and (3) incentivizing the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry to prioritize reusable design and innovation. These recommendations can promote transition to a circular economy that minimizes waste and keeps materials in use as long as possible.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper series are those of the authors and not necessarily of the authors’ organizations, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). The paper is intended to help inform and stimulate discussion. It is not a report of the NAM or the National Academies.
