HHS reopens health sector climate pledge

Hospitals, health systems and other stakeholders can still sign the Administration’s Health Sector Climate Pledge, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Climate Change and Health Equity announced today, noting that multiple stakeholders have asked to join the initiative since the October 2022 deadline. Over 100 organizations representing 837 hospitals have signed the pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030, among other actions. The Administration will recognize those who sign by April 12 in an Earth Day announcement and those who sign by Nov. 1 in an announcement around the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

AHA is a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector, a public-private partnership launched in 2021. Health Facilities Management, the magazine for AHA’s American Society for Health Care Engineering, recently finished publishing a series of articles exploring how climate change and climate events impact health care facilities and their planning, preparedness and response efforts.