Climate Emergencies are health care emergencies

The impact of planetary health on human health

Climate Emergencies are health care emergencies. Your Support is needed more than ever before. Sans Frontières (MSF) is closely monitoring the impact that planetary health will have on our emergency humanitarian medical activities. We are already responding to many of the world’s most drastic crises – conflicts, disasters, disease, displacement – and we see the consequences that rapid environmental change can have on extremely vulnerable people.

Climate-related emergencies are healthcare emergencies. The climate crisis is not only about the catastrophic cyclones and typhoons that hit the headlines. It is about the spread of deadly diseases that follow, the increasing risk of drought and famine, the mass displacement of people from their homes and more. The effects of climate change can produce massive humanitarian emergencies.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), planetary health can affect environmental aspects of health including clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter.

How bad is the planetary health crisis and why does it matter to MSF?

People are facing disproportionate health risks, including to COVID-19, are more vulnerable to the detrimental impacts of climate crisis on the environment. Some of the region’s MSF works in are more vulnerable to planetary health than others – in particular, South Asia and the Pacific region, the Middle East, the Sahelian Belt, Southern African and Central America.

MSF is already present to deliver urgently needed medical care and is monitoring the impact of environmental factors on the health of our patients. A better understanding between climate-related changes and humanitarian medical emergencies is critical to MSF’s ability to respond to evolving scenarios and prepare for new crises.

Please help us help those most affected.

MSF's Commitment to action to combat planetary health crisis

We have adopted several initiatives across the organization including:

• Reducing non-essential air travel and air freight
• Measuring and mitigating our carbon emissions
• Switching to solar systems and more energy efficient practices
• Using solar powered systems and appliances in humanitarian operations
• Avoiding and reducing waste
• Digitizing processes

We have used solar power in medical projects in Chad and Ethiopia in 1986 and 1976, in Dagah, Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan in 2003, and continue to utilize solar power in Haiti and Pakistan and solar water pumps in Bangladesh, Sudan and the DRC.

MSF has consciously and rapidly started working on our environmental footprint reduction, but we have miles to go. We stand by and respect our medical ethic of  ‘do no harm’ and we must ensure that we are responsive, responsible, and future-ready in the face of the climate crisis.