Component 6: Climate-resilient and low carbon infrastructures, technologies, and supply chain

Climate-resilient health infrastructure and services are crucial for efficient health system functioning. This includes ensuring that the location of health facilities - and the building codes - account for current and projected future climate risks. It also includes climate-resilience of essential services to health facilities, such as water and sanitation services which may be compromised by flood or drought, and electricity supply that may be cut off during extreme weather events.

Climate resilience can also be enhanced by new technologies or approaches to improve health interventions. For example, mobile technologies combined with satellite-based remote sensing of meteorological and environmental conditions on the ground have proven to be effective in improving access to reliable weather warnings, monitoring climate conditions, and surveillance and mapping the probability of transmission of climate sensitive diseases.

While building climate resilience, health systems can also reduce their environmental impacts and GHG emissions through measures associated with energy and building, water, transport, food, and medicines, as well as the proper use and disposal of health waste, and using safer chemicals in medical products and devices. Technologies such as solar-powered photovoltaics, water pumps and telemedicine can enhance resilience and sustainability by ensuring independent water and energy supplies and services to remote rural facilities, and for continued use during emergencies. Health systems also constitute a significant share of many national economies. Considering the use of low-impact and sustainable technologies can therefore lead to both economic and environmental benefits.

Health care supply chains account for an estimated 60-80% of a health care system’s carbon footprint (Tennison et al. 2021, Lancet Planet Health). Health systems can leverage their purchasing power to influence suppliers in decarbonizing their own production and supply chains. Sample interventions to strengthen climate resilience and environmental sustainability in health care facilities across four key components (health workforce; water, sanitation, hygiene, and waste management; energy; infrastructure, technologies and products) is available in the WHO guidance for climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities.

More on the objectives, sample outputs and indicators for climate resilient and low carbon infrastructures, technologies, and supply chain, see the WHO Operational Framework for building climate-resilient and low carbon health systems (under resources).