As a health issue, climate change impacts both people and health systems in Connecticut and around the globe. When extreme rainfall and flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves happen, people can lose their homes and be displaced, affecting their access to health care, while health care systems can be disrupted, and its workers can become burned out.
What’s more, hospitals are leading contributors to environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
How do health systems reduce their carbon emissions while increasing their ability to deliver quality care during extreme weather emergencies that can disrupt transportation and supply chains, and damage energy, water, and sewage infrastructure? And what are some of the financing mechanisms that can help them adapt?
The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH) at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) will present a day-long conference on September 27th to urge action on these issues. Partnering with The New York Academy of Medicine(NYAM), the conference will seek ambitious solutions from business and health-sector leaders based on the latest research about low-carbon, resilient health care delivery. The conference, Health Systems Implementing Climate Action, coincides with Climate Week NYC, the largest yearly climate event of its kind, and the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly.
The first-of-its-kind inaugural conference will be co-hosted by Dr. Jodi Sherman, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology at the Yale School of Medicine, and epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) at YSPH, who is internationally known for her studies about sustainable health systems, and Dr. Ann Kurth, PhD, MPH, MSN, president of the New York Academy of Medicine and the former dean of the Yale University School of Nursing whose research has focused on strengthening global health systems, particularly in the context of climate change. Dr. Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, Dean of YSPH, who has described climate change as one of the biggest threats to human health on a global scale, will moderate the first of six panel discussions during the day-long event.
“We expect a very broad audience, including business leaders, health care and public health administrators, researchers, research funders, clinicians, students, and public health practitioners to attend,” said Sherman. “Everyone will have something to take away regarding solutions that are already happening to transform health care delivery.”
Notes Kurth, “It is urgent to support the resilience of health systems and public health. We are excited about the depth and novelty of contributions that this event will provide, showcasing best practices and key issues that health systems can draw from to address mitigating and adapting for climate crisis stresses on behalf of the communities we serve.”
Event Highlights
Two visionary leaders in climate change and health, Dr. María Neira, MD, director Environment, Climate Change, and Health at the World Health Organization, and Dr. Marina Romanello, PhD, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, will deliver keynote addresses.
The event also will feature six panel discussions. The first panel on health care infrastructure adaptation and resilience will be moderated by YSPH Dean Ranney. Panelists will discuss long-term data-driven solutions that bolster health system resilience and sustainability, as well as financing mechanisms to fund them as they adapt. Panelists are Bob Biggio, senior vice president of facilities and support services, Boston Medical Center; Eric Berzon, former vice president and assistant treasurer-finance, Kaiser Permanente; and Lauren Sorkin, executive director, Resilient Cities Network.
There has been insufficient attention to decarbonizing health care in high-income countries, said Sherman, the director of the Yale Program on Health Care Environmental Sustainability and co-director, Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare. “Health care is responsible for nearly 5% of global emissions and causing 4 million disability adjusted life years lost from air pollution alone,” added Sherman, referring to disability adjusted life years as a standard measure of disease burden. The conference also will explore ways to help health care systems finance and adapt to climate change.
The second panel will discuss why it has become harder for commercial and property insurers to offer coverage, and how the impact of climate change on health insurance is a growing threat to care delivery. The panel will be moderated by Joe Bialowitz, former national environmental program leader, Kaiser Permanente. The speakers are Adrita Bhattacharya-Craven, research director, health and demography, The Geneva Association; and Maria McGowan, global underwriting and claims risk manager for Manulife; and Madeleine Thomson, head of climate impacts and adaptation, Wellcome.
The third panel will discuss clinical care workforce readiness, including health care workforce burnout, moderated by Omnia El Omrani, Imperial College London. Speakers are Renee Salas, founding director, The Cooperative Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Oliver Eitelwein, partner, Oliver Wyman Health and Life Sciences; and Pamela Cipriano, president, International Council of Nurses and Dean and Sadie Heath Cabiniss Professor, University of Virginia School of Nursing.
Kurth will moderate the fourth panel on the role of philanthropy and government funding to advance the evidence and affect policy and practice. Speakers are Melinda K. Abrams, executive vice president for programs, The Commonwealth Fund; Brent Sandmeyer, senior program officer, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Alexis Feeney Tallman, managing director, health initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation; and Madeleine Thomson, head of climate impacts and adaptation, Wellcome.
Panel 5, Implementing sustainable solutions in clinical care delivery, will be moderated by Caren G. Solomon, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School; deputy editor, New England Journal of Medicine; physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Speakers are Andrea MacNeill, director, Planetary Healthcare Lab, University of British Columbia; co-director, Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare; David Callaway, professor of emergency medicine, Carolinas Medical Center; chief of crisis operations and sustainability, Advocate Health; and Fiona Miller, director, CASCADES - Creating a Sustainable Canadian Health System in a Climate Crisis, University of Toronto.
The final panel will be on the topic of avoiding greenwashing when accounting for sustainable health care. The UN Secretary-General warns that decarbonization pledges must be matched with measurable data and calls for zero tolerance for greenwashing. The moderator is Gabriella Mickel, Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy. Speakers are Kristina Wyatt, deputy general counsel and chief sustainability officer, Persefoni; Donna Drummond, senior vice president, chief expense officer, and chief sustainability officer, Northwell Health.
“As a major emitter of greenhouse gases, the health care system has an obligation to be at the forefront of the fight for a low-carbon future, which is a fight for a healthy future,” said Dr. Robert Dubrow, MD, PhD, professor emeritus and senior research scientist in epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) at YSPH, and co-faculty director, YCCCH.
“At the same time, the health care system needs to be prepared to care for patients whose health has been harmed by the climate crisis, whether it be a child suffering from an asthma attack due to breathing wildfire smoke, a construction worker with heat exhaustion during a heat wave, or an elderly person with a gastrointestinal infection caused by exposure to floodwaters contaminated by raw sewage,” Dubrow added.
“Being prepared means educating the health care workforce about the range of adverse health effects of climate change, as well ensuring that the health care system has the capacity to continue to function and provide quality care during and after climate shocks like wildfires, heatwaves, hurricanes, and floods.”
The climate crisis as children’s health crisis
Dubrow is scheduled to speak at The Yale-UNICEF Workshop on Climate Change and Children’s Health on September 26th. The event seeks to mobilize action, collaboration, and investment to prioritize children’s health and well-being. It will begin with a call to action by young leaders in the climate and health movement.
The event, a collaboration between YCCCH and UNICEF, will be hosted by Yale Planetary Solutions as part of Yale @ Climate Week NYC. Dubrow will present recent research on climate change and children’s health, Dr. Arinze Agu, MD, MPH ‘25, will present the youth perspective, and Abheet Solomon, UNICEF Senior Advisor, Environment, will present UNICEF’s new report, A Threat to Progress -- Confronting the effects of climate change on child health and well-being, followed by a discussion.
Children have unique health vulnerabilities to climate change, said Dubrow. “For example, for most adults, diarrheal disease is a relatively mild and self-limiting condition, whereas it is a major killer of children under age five in low- and middle-income countries, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.
“YCCCH research has found that exposure to both droughts and floods, each of which are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, is associated with increased risk of diarrhea in these children. Furthermore, the risk of childhood diarrhea is particularly high after floods that were preceded by drought. Such compound climate shocks are becoming more frequent under climate change.”