Health and social care climate emergency national programme

In 2019, we declared a climate emergency for Wales. We wanted to trigger more focus and greater action to meet the challenges presented by the climate crisis.

There are 2 responses to the climate crisis:

• mitigation action: to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases
• adaptation action: the process of adjusting to actual or expected climate and its effects

Wales has a legally binding target to deliver net-zero emissions by 2050. Plans are in place to drive the action needed to reduce carbon emissions in the health and social care sector:

• NHS Wales decarbonisation strategic delivery plan sets out initiatives to reduce emissions in the NHS
• decarbonising social care in Wales provides a route map of 15 initiatives to help social care respond to the climate emergency
• primary care carbon footprint is a high-level, desk-based assessment of estimated emissions for primary care contractors
• Greener Primary Care framework can help independent primary care contractors (general practices, community pharmacies, community optometric practices and primary care dental practices) improve their sustainability and environmental impact

As well as reducing emissions, the health and social care sector also needs to take adaptation action to respond to the population health, and health service delivery impacts from climate change.

The climate adaptation strategy is focused on addressing the latest evidence on climate risk. The strategy also addresses the findings of the CCC’s Wales climate adaptation progress report 2023, and sets out how these are informing our work.

We established the health and social care climate emergency national programme in Autumn 2021. The aim of the programme is to provide strategic oversight for the health and social care response to the climate emergency.

Within the programme there are 5 national project boards:

• transport and procurement 
• buildings, estates and land planning 
• approach to healthcare
• social care 
• adaptation planning

The programme has £2.4 million revenue funding over 3 years to: 

• support projects across the sector that contribute to reducing emissions
• help the sector adapt to the impacts of climate change

The NHS Wales carbon footprint 2018 to 2019 was estimated to be 1,001,378 tCO2e. This is approximately 2.6% of the total emissions in Wales.

NHS Wales organisations report emissions every year to the net zero reporting guide. 

Public sector net zero data and recommendations provides the latest carbon emissions estimates.

All NHS organisations have decarbonisation action plans that set out:

• how they will reduce emissions
• how they will contribute to delivery of the decarbonisation strategic delivery plan

Our adaptation or resilience planning and action focuses on understanding, anticipating and responding to the impacts to population health, as well as to health and social care service delivery, arising from climate change.

Public Health Wales’s health impact assessment of climate change is a strategic and comprehensive appraisal of the potential implications of climate change on population health in Wales. It aims to inform and enhance adaptation planning across health and social care and the wider public sector.

To support health and social care organisations undertake adaptation planning in practice, a health and social care climate adaptation toolkit has been developed.

This toolkit has been designed for use at individual team, service or organisational level. By using the toolkit you will understand key terms and concepts and how to access the information to explore how climate change will impact your organisation and services.

The toolkit is supported by a health and social care risk and opportunities tool, which can be requested by emailing HSC.ClimateEmergency@gov.wales.

To find out more about the health and social care climate emergency national programme:

• watch our explainer video to find out more about our aims and objectives
• sign up to our newsletter
• contact the programme team at HSC.ClimateEmergency@gov.wales
• visit Green Health Wales to learn about the network for sustainable health and care in Wales

Welsh Government tackling climate change

There is much work happening across Welsh Government to combat the impacts of climate change.

Visit the Climate Action Wales hub to see how you can get involved.