Integrating environmental emergencies with health policies is a priority that must be transferred to the political sphere in order to be able to lead the fight against climate change from the health sector. This is the main conclusion of the third GreenTalks digital meeting: ‘Climate change and Health in the Autonomous Communities’, organized by Gaceta Médica and Muy Interesting, where different multidisciplinary experts agreed to highlight the ‘transversality’ in decision-making to be able to face to the effects of climate change.
The meeting, which has the support of GSK and Fundamed, focused on a ‘symbiosis’ between the political sphere and health experts. In this sense, this union converges in the implementation of a sustainable model that encompasses the sectors involved in order to be an example in the fight against climate change. For this reason, establishing steps to follow in order to be an example in this area and promote positive change among administrations is one of the priorities of some autonomous communities.
An autonomic change that promotes a national one
From Madrid, the Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero indicated that the community has plans to monitor and control the effects of exposure to certain environmental factors such as pollution, atmospheric pollen or the control of cyanotoxins in the water. In addition, the Madrid councilor pointed out the need to work on other vectors of interest in this area, such as the monitoring of chemical pollutants, pesticide residues in food and the development of strategies to help alleviate food waste.
“Advancing in an integrated approach to environmental and health policies to face environmental challenges would help maximize the benefits that nature offers to health and well-being, ” said Ruiz Escudero in a context hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The counselor recalled that the current epidemiological situation worldwide “is a clear example of the complex links between the environment, society and health.”
For this reason, establishing a control of zoonotic agents in food is another of the measures taken by CAM, another strategy that is aligned to “relate the health and environmental crisis, taking advantage of the opportunity to live in an interconnected world.”
Zer0 2030 Health Project
In this context, the autonomous community of the Canary Islands is clear about it, since it was one of the first Autonomous Communities to declare a state of climate emergency. The Deputy Minister of Health, Conrado Domínguez, highlighted this decision during the GreenTalks as a necessary tool to achieve the established objectives. In addition, the Canarian government took advantage of the meeting to present a new project: Salud Zer0 2030, a regional strategy that advocates the leadership of the health sector with the active participation of doctors and the reduction of emissions.
” Climate change can generate many inequalities in terms of health and we must take these factors into account when making decisions,” says Domínguez.
On the other hand, this project aims to build the necessary foundations to be an example to be followed by other sectors in environmental matters, which is why it aims to reach the Interterritorial Council.
In this context, the Canarian project prioritizes environmental health, integrated into the health sector, to join forces that lead to the consolidation of a Health and Climate Change Plan.
Integration of healthcare professionals
For this reason, focusing on the energy acquired, the supply of health centers, or the commitment to clean energy are some of the examples that form the backbone of the Canarian initiative. Domínguez highlights the need to involve professionals in the fusion of environmental and health policies. In this sense, one of the lines of the project is to create an interdisciplinary working group with the support of the management of the Canary Health System that promotes research.
Carlos Cabrera, pulmonologist at the Dr. Negrín de las Palmas de Gran Canaria University Hospital, expressed his support for the director of the SCS in this context and highlighted the importance of the integration of health professionals in environmental matters. In fact, the person also responsible for SEPAR Joven and Neumocan for climate change and health, underlines the importance of facing climatic health challenges such as pollution or heat waves, which cause a worsening in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
“In relation to heat waves, health workers see more income and an increased incidence of mortality,” said Cabrera. In fact, the pulmonologist highlighted as one of the most ‘striking’ features that in Spain almost more people die in summer than in winter. In his opinion, guiding through guidelines on climate change is a task that specialists have ahead of them in a context that “involves many different professionals and depends on transversality”.
One direction
An idea shared by Felipe Villar, vice president of the Madrid Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery Neumomadrid and associate head of the Pneumology Service of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital, who considers that the current situation caused by COVID-19 has generated a space in the that “the position of the doctor will be heard by all.” For this reason, Villar defends this transversality by uniting “government, ministries, hospitals and patients.”
“We must go in the same direction, with our own and unique actions that are easy to identify and with which we can raise awareness in society,” he stressed.
To this end, the vice president of SEPAR is committed to teleconsultations, the prescription of drugs with a low climate footprint and self-care that “allows control of the disease” and ensures “less expensive treatments.” Villar stressed the priority of reducing the climatic footprint of the health sector and raising awareness among professionals in this regard, since they have “a responsibility to the population, where the commitment is health and social.”
GSK SUPPORT – The Role of the Healthcare Sector
From the pharmaceutical industry, the vice president and director of Institutional Relations and Communication of GSK Spain, Guillermo De Juan, highlighted the main data on pollution from the health sector to insist on the need to fight against climate change.
“The health sector’s climate footprint is equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 514 coal-fired power plants, so if the sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter on the planet.” This was highlighted by recalling the data from a report by the NGO Health Care Without Farm (HCWH).
De Juan insisted on this aspect since the percentage of the sector’s emissions corresponds to 4.4 percent of the global net, or what is the same as 2 gigatons of carbon. Figures that place the health sector as “one of the main responsible for the climate crisis.” In this context, GSK works to build a sustainable future from the company’s strategies, showing its environmental commitment, especially with Sustainable Development Goal number 3: ‘Health and Well-being’.
