The current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the close relationship between the environment, climate change and infectious diseases. As a result of this combination, the increased effects of climate change on people’s health are born, a fact proven by numerous studies. For this reason, joint and aligned collaboration with the autonomous communities has become another of the keys to face crisis situations at a time of pandemic.
At this point, the ability of the health sector to be able to align its actions and trajectory with the development of the Paris Agreement and the climate policies demanded today comes into play. In this context, the third ‘Greentalks’ meeting, organized by Muy Interesting and Gaceta Médica, focuses on the association of climate change and health in the autonomous communities.
The virtual debate, which has the support of Fundamed and GSK, will be held next Tuesday, March 16 at four in the afternoon online and will be broadcast through the Muy Interesante Periscope platform and on YouTube.
The meeting will address the challenges facing public health and among the highlights, it will discuss the possibility of establishing a sustainable model around the health sector is one of the current issues.
The health sector, a solution that is part of the problem
The health sector is presented as a coin with two sides. On the one hand, it is in charge of protecting and promoting people’s health and guaranteeing the well-being of society. However, on the other hand, it is one of those responsible for favoring the effects of the climate crisis.
This is because the health sector’s climate footprint is equivalent to 4.4% of net global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This is indicated by a report by the NGO Health Care Without Farm (Salud sin Daño, in Spanish) that presents the first global estimate of the climate footprint of the health sector.
Along these lines, the report indicates that the health sector’s climate footprint is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 514 coal-fired power plants, so that, if the sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter in the world. planet.
Faced with increasing concern about climate change, this virtual debate will raise the existing possibilities in relation to investment in health and health policies, rethought with the aim of supporting decarbonization.
In order to establish the measures – in the short, medium and long term – that could be introduced in the regional health systems, the third Greentalks will have the political participation of the Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, the Deputy Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Conrado Domínguez and the second vice-president and Minister of Health of the Junta de Extremadura, José María Vergeles.
Also, from the health perspective, will be part of the event Felipe Villar, vice president of the Madrid Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery Neumomadrid and associate head of the Pneumology Service of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital and Carlos Cabrera, pulmonologist of the Dr. Negrín University Hospital of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, responsible for SEPAR Joven and Neumocan for climate change and health.
