Overview

Climate change increasingly affects people’s health and well-being, both directly through extreme climate events and indirectly by threatening the capacity of health systems to protect the health of their populations. These negative impacts are particularly visible when it comes to health care facilities, as they are often not built to cope with increasing climate-related risks such as extreme climate events including storms, floods and droughts. Health care facilities in developing countries are particularly vulnerable, as they often lack a proper infrastructure and a sufficient health workforce, and suffer from inadequate water and sanitation services, and energy supply.

Importantly, health care facilities can also have a negative impact on health and the environment through the emissions of greenhouse gases and through the poor management of insufficiently treated waste. It is therefore critical that health care facilities are built to be environmentally sustainable by implementing interventions that optimize the consumption of resources (e.g. water, energy, food), reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and properly manage waste (including biological, chemical and radiological). In addition, increasing the environmental sustainability of health care facilities also involves procuring goods and services that follow the principles of environmental sustainability.

WHO has developed Guidance for Climate Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Care Facilities. This guidance aims to assist countries in identifying and implementing interventions that provide resilience from external climate-related shocks, and that protect the health workforce and their serving communities from environmental threats. The guidance proposes minimum standards that all health care facilities must have, followed by an incremental approach for interventions depending on each facility’s feasibility, capacity and resources. This is particularly importantly as building climate-resilience and environmental sustainability are best addressed together, thus achieving synergies and resource efficiency.