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The many facets of climate and health

July 18^th, 2024

“It is a beautiful place. It is very peaceful here.”

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Singye Maya Gurung is a healthcare waste handler at Mendrelgang Primary Health Centre in Tsirang district, Bhutan. Photo: UNDP Bhutan

The remote and verdant district is known for its organic farming. Singye is grateful for her job, as it allows her to support her family. But healthcare waste comes with hazards, both for her and her community. Not only is she extremely careful to wash and change her clothes before she hugs her children after work, she is also worried that healthcare waste, which increased since COVID-19, could pollute her community.

“The healthcare waste is very risky,” she says. “If the untreated waste is directly disposed of, it will affect everyone, including animals, people and the environment.”

The many facets of healthcare are central to the climate crisis and the environmental degradation that accompanies it. Disposing of healthcare waste is just one aspect of the global challenges around diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis (TB).

Not only is the climate crisis compounding susceptibility to these preventable and treatable conditions, it is damaging livelihoods, reducing economic and food security, displacing families and disrupting essential health services. At the same time, the health sector itself is a significant source of emissions and environmental degradation.

Healthcare’s contribution to the climate problem

If healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth largest greenhouse gas producer, largely because of its supply chain and medical waste.

And even though one billion people are treated at facilities that do not have electricity, health centres use nearly three times more energy than commercial buildings.

One in three healthcare facilities lack the resources to manage their waste, and the open burning of healthcare waste can release toxic chemicals in some circumstances. For those that do have the resources, the process is either polluting or only partially effective.

Health as a solution

The health sector can play an important part in addressing climate change.

With governments, communities, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNDP tackles health and climate challenges in different ways.

Scaling smart health–digitally enabled, solar powered and energy efficient solutions to address healthcare gaps, supply chain logistics, medical waste, and pandemic preparedness.

Supporting sustainable procurement initiatives ensure that health products have the lowest possible climate impact, while supporting governments to adopt environmentally and socially sound practices to manage healthcare waste.

Where we are working

In 2023, UNDP worked in 59 countries on the nexus of climate, environment and health.

In Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives, UNDP supports the safe sorting, sterilizing and disposing of healthcare waste, with funding from the Government of Japan. Facilities and waste handlers like Singye Maya Gurung have been equipped with machinery and training for the safe and environmentally sound handling of healthcare waste.

Governments are now setting up environmentally sound waste management and disposal systems, with stronger policies, digital technologies and renewable energy to protect human health and minimize social and environmental impacts.

“Safe and secure healthcare waste is a critical component not only in protecting healthcare workers and everybody involved in the healthcare management waste cycle, but also in preventing infection, accidental injury and harm to the environment.” - Aishath Samiya Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Maldives

Sustainable healthcare

Reducing emissions and adopting healthcare technologies go hand in hand.

Sao Tome and Principe is taking a comprehensive approach to HIV, TB and malaria with an ambitious programme that employs solar energy to improve laboratory operations and the use of health data from facilities across the country.

The District Health Information System (DHIS2) is an internationally recognized open-source platform used in over 100 countries. In Sao Tome and Principe, it enables the Ministry of Health and all districts to have a complete and up-to-date picture of progress made in treating HIV, TB and malaria, understand health needs and plan future health initiatives.

The system expanded beyond aggregate data to capture individual patient data in 2020. In addition to HIV, TB and malaria, it now records data for everyone receiving COVID-19 vaccines and tracks childhood immunizations across health facilities, to help health workers ensure patients, especially the most vulnerable, receive all their doses and that none are duplicated.

“We keep track of children’s immunization from the first to the last dose. And we intend to create a communication system in the future, which means that whenever the time comes for a child to be vaccinated the system can send a notification to the parents and guardians announcing that there is a need for the child to come to the clinic.” - Osvaldo Viegas, Coordinator, Health Information System, Sao Tome and Principe

Health and climate are inextricably linked, and as climatic conditions become more extreme, and the human and economic costs rise, this is going to require a more concerted and coordinated responses at all levels and the health sector must play its part in more ambitious climate action.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis. We must urgently scale efforts to build resilient and inclusive systems that protect peoples’ health from climate change, including to finish the job on ending the HIV, TB and malaria epidemics,” said Luciana Mermet, Manager, UNDP Global Fund Partnership and Health Systems Team.