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The ATACH Community of Practice resource repository aims to make resources which directly support delivery of the COP26 Health commitments easily accessible.

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Safe, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities: an overview

This guidance summarizes key information and strategies for creating safe, climate-resilient, and environmentally sustainable health care facilities. It provides definitions, actionable guidance, and resources for implementation by health care managers, practitioners, and national authorities.

Categories: Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Health National Adaptation Plans, Net zero health systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Global

Plant-powered Planet: Building a Healthy and Sustainable Food System

This evidence-based policy report highlights the importance of food system transformation for health and sustainability. It outlines key policy interventions to address interlinked challenges of food insecurity, environmental degradation, and health.

Categories: Nutrition, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Net zero health systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Global, Europe

Diagnostic Excellence in the Context of Climate Change: A Review

This article highlights how diagnostic quality issues contribute to climate change and presents evidence-informed considerations to address these issues through clinical practice, policy, and research.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Discussion paper, Global, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

Lessons from patient safety to accelerate healthcare decarbonization

This article outlines key lessons learnt and best practices from the field of patient safety which could serve as catalysts to accelerate healthcare decarbonization and reduce greenwashing. It describes challenges and opportunities for healthcare sustainability efforts and provides several recommendations for additional steps to prevent greenwashing for voluntary sustainability programs. 

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Discussion paper, Global, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

National policies to accelerate climate action in US healthcare

This manuscript published in Nature Climate Change describes efforts to mobilize climate actions for U.S. healthcare, which contributes about 8.5% of national greenhouse gas emissions. The authors detail recommendations for...

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Discussion paper, Country experience, Global, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

Health Care Actions for Reducing Plastic Use and Pollution

This article describes how plastic waste from healthcare, much of which consists of single-use plastic devices, harms the environment and human health. The authors discuss sociotechnical approaches to reduce healthcare plastics...

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Discussion paper, Global, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

Quality criteria for integrating health into Nationally Determined Contributions

The document provides guidance for integrating health into countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), aiming to improve their quality and ambition. It supports national officials in understanding climate plans and key entry points for health, covering a structured approach, quality criteria, examples, and resources to address health impacts and promote climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health systems.

Categories: Nutrition, Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Health National Adaptation Plans, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Global

Health systems decarbonization: Lessons learned in building capacities in the sector

This brief presents key lessons learnt from Health Care Without Harm’s experience in greenhouse gas (GHG) national baselining, action planning initiatives, and capacity-building strategies. These lessons learnt can help shape future approaches for countries working to measure and reduce health care-related emissions and enhance sustainability.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Training, Country experience, Global, Western Pacific, South East Asia, Americas (Pan American Health Organization), Europe

WHO Case Study Series on Climate Change and Health (2022)

This case study series was published by the WHO in response to a call for case studies on climate and health in 2021-2022, in the momentum of COP26. These case studies showcase examples of work that is already being implemented...

Categories: Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Nutrition, Health National Adaptation Plans, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Country experience, Global

Transition to sustainable plastic packaging for consumer healthcare products

This Position Paper from the Global Self Care Federation (GSCF) outlines the consumer healthcare industry's perspective on policies needed to enhance sustainable packaging for non-prescription medicines and food supplements. It...

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Discussion paper, Global

Carbon Footprint Supplier Assessment Questionnaire

This document is a basic questionnaire to assess and report on the environmental and social impacts of pharmaceutical suppliers' practices. The questionnaire provides a general survey of impacts and practices in terms of carbon...

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Tools, Global

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Sectoral Guidance

This Sectoral Guidance document is designed as a simplified sectoral guidance to supplement general GHG protocol guidance. It aims to assist self-care suppliers in developing a GHG reduction strategy by providing non-technical...

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Tools, Global

Smart Hospital Initiative: Toolkit

This toolkit provides health system administrators and policymakers a practical guide to strengthening structural and operational aspects and providing green technologies, in order to improve hospitals' resilience and reduce their carbon footprint.

Categories: Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Net zero health systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Tools, Global, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

Online training course: Climate Change and Health

This is an interactive online course to understand the interlinkages between climate change and health and the opportunities for addressing the health risks of climate change, building climate resilient and low carbon health systems, promoting the health co-benefits of climate action, and being able to communicate this new knowledge to others.

Categories: Nutrition, Financing, Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Access to climate change funding for health, Climate Change & Health Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessments, Health National Adaptation Plans, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Training, Global

Carbon Emissions Learning Lab

The Carbon Emissions Learning Lab (CELL) is an on-line platform to train users on decision making to achieve net zero health systems. It is a learning tool for leaders in the healthcare sector who are navigating net zero health systems. CELL provides users with a realistic, low-risk simulation, powered by real-world data, to analyze the implementation of carbon-reduction initiatives in hospital systems. CELL empowers users to become climate leaders through informed, sustainability-oriented decision-making.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Net zero health systems, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Training, Tools, Global, Europe

Target setting for low carbon sustainable health systems

This document contains key considerations and a practical checklist to assist health system administrators and policy makers in setting credible and ambitious decarbonization targets for the health sector.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Global

Operational framework for building climate resilient and low carbon health systems

This document presents the WHO Operational framework for building climate resilient and low carbon health systems. The framework’s goal is to increase the climate resilience of health systems to protect and improve the health of communities in an unstable and changing climate, while optimizing the use of resources and implementing strategies to reduce GHG emissions.

Categories: Climate Resilient Health Systems, Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Access to climate change funding for health, Climate Change & Health Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessments, Health National Adaptation Plans, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Tools, Global, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific, South East Asia, Americas (Pan American Health Organization), Europe

Aga Khan Development Network’s Tool to Calculate Health Operations Emissions

This Excel tool calculates the GHG emissions of health care facility operations. It converts readily available data from health facilities and community-based programs into instant carbon read-outs using accurate and up-to-date carbon conversion factors. Downloads include: Excel tool and guidance document in both English and French.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Tools, Global

Climate Impact Checkup Tool and guidance

The Climate Impact Checkup tool can be used to assess GHG emissions baselines of health care facilities using facility-level data on energy, transport, waste, and gases to then calculate footprints based on national or local emissions factors. Downloads include: Excel tool, two training videos, guidance document and slides for users and trainers.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, Supply chains, Net zero health systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Action Plans for sustainable low carbon health systems, Guidance document, Training, Tools, Global

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation in Canadian Healthcare

The resource provides guidance and outlines available tools for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in healthcare and provides an overview of the current state of estimation across Canada. While primarily aimed at Canadian health care organizations the tools and guidance are more widely applicable globally.

Categories: Low Carbon Sustainable Health Systems, GHG emissions baseline assessments, Guidance document, Tools, Americas (Pan American Health Organization)

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