The Welsh Government is pledging £2.4m to tackle carbon emissions, through the Health and Social Care Climate Emergency National Programme, as the NHS continue to strive towards their goal of becoming net zero by 2050 – aligned with government policy.
NHS Wales produces approximately 1m tonnes of carbon emissions every year, making it the largest public sector carbon emitter in Wales. NHS organisations will be granted a cut of the fund in order to reach their target of slashing carbon emissions by a third by 2030.
NHS Wales Chief Executive Judith Paget said: “As the largest public sector emitter of CO2, the NHS in Wales needs to play its part to protect the health and wellbeing of future generations. We can all help with this effort by returning unused medication to their pharmacy, asking for a more sustainable inhaler or using active or public transport to attend appointments.”
She added: “We are also encouraging applications from NHS organisations for up to £60k in the first year for small to medium sized initiatives to reduce carbon emissions or help the sector adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Last year, the Welsh Government published its NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan, which included 46 initiatives to help meet their decarbonization targets. The initiatives were broken up into a range of sections covering everything from transportation to procurement.
Some of the targets included electrifying fleet vehicles, using low carbon lightings in all buildings, reducing the use of harmful gases and designing the future health and care social system to be as low carbon as possible.
With funding now available and NHS organisations applying for eligibility, Dr Thomas Downs, founder of Ysbyty Gwynedd Green Group said: “This funding from the Welsh Government will be well-received, as it should increase health workers capacity for action and hopefully accelerate our transition to more environmentally sustainable and resilient healthcare.”
He added: “As health workers we recognise our human health and well-being, and our ability to provide sustainable healthcare depends on a healthy climate and nature, so professionally our duty to ‘do no harm’ extends beyond our clinics and hospitals to our shared environment, on which our patients’ health and wellbeing depends.”
NHS organisations can request a funding application form by contacting [email protected].
More information on the funding can be found here.
Don't forget our upcoming NHE365 Net-Zero NHS online event on the 26th of May 2022. Check out the agenda here and register your interest here.
