This year, NHS England announced its intention to become the world’s first ‘net zero’ national health service by 2045. What makes this ambition world-leading is the fact that it includes 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.
Health Care Without Harm is embarking on an ambitious project to develop the first global route map for the decarbonisation of healthcare. Here 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.
We need your help!
The need for climate action is urgent, and the evidence suggests that the next 10 years are critical. Our project must therefore have maximum impact – to ensure this, we need your help.
At this year’s European Healthcare Climate Summit, we will present our Operation Zero project and use it as an opportunity to gain your valuable feedback that will support us in developing more robust outputs.
Who should attend?
This year’s Climate Summit is aimed primarily at sustainability professionals and senior decision makers working within a health facility environment. Whilst the outputs of our Operation Zero project are aimed at a system/ministry level, it is the staff within healthcare facilities that will ultimately be responsible for the ground-level action necessary to meet a net zero target, and their input is critical at this stage.