HEALTH PROFESSIONALS FOR A HEALTHY CLIMATE

Engaging urban and rural communities about how to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change is a key focus for HPHC. We work with health professionals and community leaders across the state to support policies and programs that reduce carbon emissions through clean energy and clean transportation and that create healthy and resilient communities. We provide experienced support for local efforts through the co-production of fact sheets and other informational materials, trainings, webinars, opportunities for testimony, social media, and earned media. We also support community-based climate and health initiatives that address their specific vision for community health and resilience, as well as shedding light on external projects and policies that cause harm to the health of the community. Examples of this kind of work includes multilingual presentations about the dangers of extreme heat and extreme weather to outdoor works, our commitment to a public education campaign about the dangers of wildfire smoke. We launched our Climate-Smart Health Care (CSHC) committee. CSHC is low-carbon and resilient healthcare designed to reduce and mitigate contributing factors of climate change. 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from the healthcare sector with hospitals contributing one-third of those emissions. HPHC identifies and helps willing health systems and health professionals create specific, long-term remediation of existing climate-concerning processes. With more than a dozen grassroots networks and coalitions, we organize around (and sometimes ahead of) climate action framework activities to make necessary changes to reduce the impacts of climate change in Minnesota.