US | Health Care Without Harm and ANHE launch Nurses Climate Challenge

US | Health Care Without Harm and ANHE launch Nurses Climate Challenge

Health Care Without Harm, in collaboration with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE), launched the Nurses Climate Challenge in conjunction with National Nurses Day and CleanMed.

Nursing is the largest of the health care professions with 4 million registered nurses in the United States with the majority practicing in hospitals, making nurses ideal spokespeople to educate their colleagues on climate and health.

The Nurses Climate Challenge is a nationwide campaign for nurses to educate 5,000 health professionals on the health impacts of climate …

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Global | New World Bank Report Calls for Health Sector Leadership on Climate

Global | New World Bank Report Calls for Health Sector Leadership on Climate

Geneva— The World Bank Group’s health and climate directors released a report today establishing a new framework for health systems in every country to become leaders in addressing climate change. The report is a joint production with Health Care Without Harm (1).

In its title, the report coins the term Climate-Smart Health Care, an approach that sets forth both low-carbon and resilience strategies. These strategies are designed for the development community, ministries of health, hospitals and health systems to deploy while addressing the health impacts of …

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US | Health leaders converge with urgency, unity, and even some optimism at Climate and Health Meeting

US | Health leaders converge with urgency, unity, and even some optimism at Climate and Health Meeting

Over 300 health professionals and health scientists around the US and the world united at a landmark Climate and Health Meeting on February 16 to discuss the urgent measures needed to prevent and ameliorate the adverse health impacts of a changing climate.

Originally organized by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but abruptly cancelled due to concerns about the Trump administration’s stance on climate action, the meeting was reconvened by Former Vice President Al Gore, the American Public Health Association, and health academic institutions.

A …

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India | Health sector leaders launch Health and Environment Leadership Platform; call for urgent action on air pollution

India | Health sector leaders launch Health and Environment Leadership Platform; call for urgent action on air pollution

Gurgaon, India: Representatives of more than 5,000 healthcare institutions and several thousand healthcare professionals around the country that form the Health and Environment Leadership Platform (HELP) released a joint statement today calling for concerted action to reduce air pollution in India.

The statement called on “all relevant stakeholders to take immediate and sustainable action to improve India’s air quality and ameliorate its impacts on health”. The statement also noted that “if India is to realize the value of its demographic dividend, it will need to tackle the …

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Global | As Paris Agreement takes effect, health care leaders join to turn promise into climate action

Global | As Paris Agreement takes effect, health care leaders join to turn promise into climate action

With the Paris Agreement recently having entered into force, just in time before the start of COP22, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is mobilizing hospitals and health systems around the world to be leaders in implementing the Paris treaty by fostering green, low carbon, climate resilient health care. With this being the initial step, HCWH is also calling on health systems to be carbon neutral by 2050.

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Global | New film showcases health care’s mission to protect people and the planet

Global | New film showcases health care’s mission to protect people and the planet

As part of our 20th anniversary celebration, Health Care Without Harm is excited to release Do No Harm, a short film telling the inspiring story of this global movement.

Once upon a time, a small group of doctors, nurses, and health care leaders realized that, in violation of the Hippocratic Oath to “first, do no harm”, some hospital practices were harming patients and the planet. This small effort grew into a global movement advocating for change on the critical environmental health issues of our time. As …

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Global | Health Care Without Harm celebrates 20 years of protecting health and environment

Global | Health Care Without Harm celebrates 20 years of protecting health and environment

Celebrating Health Care Without Harm’s 20th anniversary, Gary Cohen reflects on the last two decades in the environmental health movement and offers an opportunity for health care to redefine its role in the 21st century.

When we started Health Care Without Harm, we hardly knew anyone who worked in the health care sector. We were mostly outsiders, community activists who had been working for decades in the environmental movement. But we knew we needed powerful allies to transform this emerging science linking the environment to our …

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Global | Conference on Health and Climate sets health action agenda for implementation of Paris Agreement

Global | Conference on Health and Climate sets health action agenda for implementation of Paris Agreement

More than 300 government ministers, health experts and practitioners, and other participants came together at the Second Global Conference on Health and Climate, hosted by the WHO and the Government of France, to propose key actions for the implementation of the Paris Agreement to reduce health risks linked to climate change. These actions include switching to cleaner energy sources, advancing low-carbon health care, and increasing the resilience of health systems and health determinants to climate risks.

Highlights from the Conference:

Conference Conclusions
Action Agenda
Conference Programme
HCWH at the WHO …

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Global | Healthy Energy Initiative releases new resources on Health Impacts of Energy Choices

Global | Healthy Energy Initiative releases new resources on Health Impacts of Energy Choices

The Healthy Energy Initiative, a program of Health Care Without Harm, has released a new fact sheet and infographics on the Health Impacts of Energy Choices.

The 4-page Fact Sheet outlines how the generation, distribution, and consumption of energy can have both positive and negative impacts on the health of communities, workers, and the global climate.

It contains an infographic of the pathways through which energy production leads to environmental disruption and ultimately health outcomes:

It also features an updated, graphical comparison chart of various energy sources in terms of …

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Global & Philippines | Op-ed: Renewable energy is healthy energy

As part of the #ClimateActionPH media campaign of Philippine news network Rappler, the Healthy Energy Initiative’s global coordinator, Jennifer Wang, contributed an opinion piece on renewable energy and health.

 

A future powered by healthy energy will require reducing dependence on dirty sources of energy, using energy more efficiently, and increasing investment in clean, renewable energy choices.

Read the full article at Rappler.com.

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