The climate crisis is arguably the greatest threat to the health of our communities. This is the conclusion reached by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr.D Theresa Tam, in a report published last October, as well as many other health professionals in Quebec and Canada. Moreover, the DD Mylène Drouin, at the regional direction of public health in Montreal, raises the importance of tackling the climate challenges that particularly affect the health of the most vulnerable communities.
This is why we have decided at the Trottier Family Foundation to act for the decarbonization and resilience of the health network in Quebec. That said, our involvement does not replace the governments of Quebec and Canada, which must also act.
The health sector contributes nearly 5% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions nationally and globally, so it is important to reduce its carbon footprint and ensure that it does not harm the very health of the populations it must protect.
In this respect, the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is often cited as being THE best practice in this area, having adopted ambitious climate targets and rigorous action plans integrated into the decision-making processes as well as so many budgets dedicated to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. This is what we must aim for here in Quebec and Canada as well.
To do this, everyone must be able to push the wheel, whether it be health and social services establishments, non-governmental organizations or even the community sector. Of course, the involvement of governments is essential and must be exemplary in this regard.
The role of philanthropy
We also believe that the philanthropic sector can and must play a role in this structuring process. This is why our Foundation announced as part of the Montreal Climate Summit an investment of $2 million per year for the next five years (10 million in total) to reduce GHG emissions from the health network and to contribute to its resilience.
Philanthropy has a long tradition of investing in health (16% of donations in Canada in 2018), whether for medical research or public and community health, however, very few sums are invested in the environment (4% of donations to Canada in 2018).
Without abandoning the traditional approach to which we continue to subscribe, we believe that philanthropic financing in health can go further by integrating climate and environmental considerations.
Today, we are therefore reaching out to our colleagues in the philanthropic sector so that they follow suit in this direction.
But let’s not be fooled, philanthropy alone cannot replace the role that the state must play in the face of this major challenge. This is why we are also calling on decision-makers to integrate ambitious climate targets into the health system and position it as an essential pillar for achieving our climate objectives, like the NHS in the Kingdom. -United.
Such targets, accompanied by credible action plans and budgets, would send a clear signal to the handful of healthcare professionals who are leading efforts to make our healthcare system carbon neutral, resilient and exemplary in terms of environmentally responsible medical practices. What’s more, this would highlight the need to integrate climate and environmental notions into the training of these professionals, as recommended by the World Health Organization through the “One Health” approach. ).
After three years of the pandemic, our healthcare system is at the end of its tether. This fatigue will only be exacerbated by the climatic pressures which will not fade anytime soon. Let us therefore take advantage of the reform of the health system in progress to include climate objectives allowing it to be more low-carbon, but also more resilient.
To this challenge, we respond “present” and we hope that our leaders will respond to the call just as much!