Unitaid
Unitaid is a hosted partnership of WHO. At Unitaid, we save lives by making new health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. We connect all relevant partners to find and invest in innovative tests, treatments and tools, help tackle the market barriers that are holding them back, and get them to the people who need them most – fast.
We are working to address the impacts of climate change on our work – and the impact of our work on the environment. “Climate and health” is a key priority in Unitaid’s 2023-2027 Strategy, and our new Climate and Health Strategy is focused on mitigation, adaptation, and reducing our own carbon footprint.
Unitaid’s Climate and Health Strategy is anchored in a simple concept: climate-smart health products, which we define as products that are not harmful to climate and nature, resilient, responsive to the evolving needs of communities, and locally adapted. This aligns with WHO’s comprehensive approach to “climate resilient and low carbon health systems”. Climate-smart health products have a strong public health value, are relevant for affected communities, support our objectives for mitigation and adaptation, and are more sustainable than current products and interventions.
Supporting the following commitments:
Unitaid’s Climate and Health strategy will contribute directly to commitments 4, 5 and 6 through the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from supply chains and programmatic work aiming at reducing these emissions. Unitaid will support commitments 1, 2 and 3 through the introduction of climate-smart products that contribute to more resilient health systems.
- Conduct climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&As) at population level and/or health care facility level.
- Develop a health national adaptation plan (HNAP) informed by the health V&A, which forms part of the National Adaptation Plan.
- Use the V&A and HNAP to facilitate access to climate change funding for health.
- Set a target date by which to achieve health systems net zero emissions (ideally by 2050).
- Deliver a baseline assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of the health system (including supply chains).
- Develop an action plan or roadmap by a set date to develop a sustainable low carbon health system (including supply chains).
Country experience:
By design Unitaid’s contributions are global and/or multi-country. For instance, Unitaid’s report “From milligrams to megatons” looked at the carbon footprint of global supply chains.
Links:
Site in English: https://unitaid.org/#en