CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
Neonatal intensive care room.
2019 Government Programme, Finland will be carbon-neutral by 2035 and the world’s first fossil-free welfare society.1 That requires faster reduction of emissions in all sectors and strengthening of national carbon sinks. The Finnish parliament supports the goal of strengthening the EU’s climate policy to achieve climate neutrality in the EU, the binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2030. Prime Minister Marin´s proposal for the
use of ¤2.9 billion funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility accounts for 50 per cent of spending on the green transition, with the remaining funds divided between digitalisation, and research and development investments. This ‘Sustainable Growth Programme’ was accepted by Finnish government in May 2021.2
In the Finnish healthcare sector,
however, the government’s plans for climate change mitigation action are missing. COVID-19 has placed all levels of Finnish society under stress and the focus has been on controlling the pandemic and its impacts. At the same time, the government has
been preparing the much-awaited social and healthcare reform, a gigantic effort with lots of difficulties that resulted in the resignation of the former government in 2019. These two subjects have left little room to sustainability issues in healthcare sector, at national or even local level. The Finnish parliament since accepted
the government’s proposals for social and healthcare reform in June 2021, and
Reception for radiology patients.
21 wellbeing services regions and rescue services should start providing all public social and health care from January 2023. That means healthcare decision-makers and administrative personnel will be extremely busy in preparing the reorganisation and transposition of tasks from municipalities to the new wellbeing areas.
Rising interest in climate change mitigation Is there any room for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the healthcare sector? Well, it seems that climate change mitigation in public healthcare is led by other sectors of society. In recent months, in accordance with the Government Programme, sectoral low-carbon roadmaps have been prepared for 13 different sectors of society, including energy, chemical and food industry, construction, logistics, transport and commerce – but not for the healthcare sector.3 Fortunately, we have observed an
increasing demand for more sustainable solutions among healthcare personnel. The amount of waste created by the pandemic has increased interest in better waste management, safe ways to reuse single-use items, and transition from single-use items to reusable. In January 2021, the Finnish Medical Association declared a climate emergency and pleaded with decision-makers to limit global warming and to establish carbon neutrality by 2030.4 Interest in the circular economy is increasing, especially among young
Sectoral low-carbon roadmaps have been prepared for 13 different sectors of society, including energy, chemical and food industry, construction, logistics, transport and commerce - but not for the healthcare sector
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people, businesses and academic world, and solutions are being investigated for new methods of waste processing to new materials. As contaminated hospital plastics are not welcome in mechanical processing of plastic waste, thermolysis and chemical processing are being developed instead. Healthcare systems should be able to
report which waste qualities can be separated and provided for reprocessing. Additional work must be done internally and externally to develop new separated waste streams, e.g. for different plastics: recognition of the product, collection with quality control, storage and finding a recipient. With motivated staff, we expect to be able to accomplish this. In Finland, municipalities are
responsible for the funding of public healthcare. Since 2008, one of four municipalities have increased their climate actions and sustainability programmes are eventually spreading into public healthcare. Many hospitals and health centres are built with new technology increasing energy efficiency, and geothermal and solar energy solutions have recently been introduced. There is a growing interest in more
sustainable construction materials such as wood, which is already used in multi- storey residential buildings, schools and other public properties, supported also by national funding.5
However, large hospitals
are not, as yet, seen as suitable buildings for wooden construction. In this regard, greener technologies in concrete industry would be welcome because cement production is one of the most carbon- polluting industries.6 Health systems can already buy fossil-
free energy because water, wind and nuclear power is universally available, and many energy companies plan to end the use of coal, gas and peat by 2035. Some public hospitals have already claimed they will be carbon neutral by 2030.7 In 2020, the Hospital District of
Southwest Finland introduced a new five- year Sustainability Programme, including
IFHE DIGEST 2022
©Mikael Soininen
©Mikael Soininen
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