Cleaner health care: hospital emissions mitigation
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- Bipartisan Policy Center, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Bipartisan Policy Center, November 2023
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Air Pollution Conservation of Energy Resources Food Loss and Waste Government Programs Government Regulation Hospitals United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Climate change’s toll on human health is undisputed: Cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, liver diseases, diabetes, preterm births, and behavioral health issues have all been associated with the presence of extreme temperatures. Children, older Americans, and low-income communities remain especially vulnerable. The nation’s health care sector has an important role to play in reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are contributing to a warming planet. The United States remains the top emitter of health care GHG emissions globally, accounting for 27% of Earth’s total health care emissions. Hospitals generate the most emissions in the U.S. health care sector at 36%, followed by physician and clinical services at 12%, and prescription drugs at 10%. This report focuses on the immediate actions that hospitals can take, but BPC recognizes that the GHG emissions originating from health care supply chains must be addressed as well, given that they account for nearly 80% of U.S. health care emissions. Although the problem extends well beyond the health care system, addressing the unique features of the health care system’s supply chain - such as the development and manufacturing of health care goods and services (e.g., pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices) - is also essential to lowering emissions and will require input from a much larger set of stakeholders. Promisingly, experts and policymakers at all levels of government increasingly acknowledge the need to reduce the GHGs emitted by the health care system, starting with the nation’s hospitals.20,21,22 Indeed, many hospitals and health care entities have already begun to act. And now is a propitious time to act: The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169) and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58) both offer significant incentives for hospitals and health care systems to lower their greenhouse gas emissions.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (55 pages, 16 unnumbered pages)) : illustrations
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918750687506676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918750687506676