YuLin Zhen, Photography Editor

On Friday, Sept. 27, members of the Yale community, along with business executives, healthcare insurers and public health experts assembled at 5th Avenue, New York to discuss climate-adaptive health systems. 

The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health — or YCCCH — co-hosted the conference during Climate Week NYC, conducting a slate of six panels throughout the day alongside the New York Academy of Medicine. 

“Health, for the first year at Climate Week New York City, was a key theme for the organizers of the entire climate week,” Jen Wang, executive director of the YCCCH, told the News. “They started to see health as something that they’re really interested in bringing into that conversation.” 

“Pent-Up Demand” — Health Systems Entering Popular Conversation as Major Carbon Emitters

The introduction of healthcare as a theme of Climate Week NYC follows a broader shift towards prioritizing climate-resilient health infrastructure, or health infrastructure designed with sustainability in mind. The December 2023 COP28 Conference of Parties was a bellwether of this trend, hosting the first-ever “Health Day.” 

A major emitter of greenhouse gasses, the U.S. healthcare system is responsible for 8.5 percent of total emissions in the country. Having risen by 6 percent from 2010 to 2018, the American healthcare sector boasts the highest rate of emissions among industrialized countries. 

“Healthcare emissions are very significant, beyond what most people understand,” Dr. Paul Anastas, director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale, told the News. “The fact that healthcare might be particularly energy intensive wouldn’t be a big deal, except that it is reliant on fossil energy the same way as many parts of society are.”

Despite demanding a significant energy burden, the healthcare sector is especially vulnerable to climate-related shocks. Increased patient volume resulting from extreme weather events — which are linked to climate change — strain hospitals’ surge capacities. These infrastructure damages can arrest patient care, with models estimating that climate-related disasters over the past decade surpassed $14 billion in losses, totaling over 21,000 emergency room visits.

Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the School of Public Health, emphasized the importance of sustainable healthcare. 

“We are seeing increased awareness of and discussion of the intersection between climate and health, both on the level of health institutions, but also local, state, national and international governments,” Ranney said. 

“Covering A Lot of Ground” — A Conference Dedicated to Solutions

The conference’s six panels leveraged a diversity of perspectives, honing in on action-oriented suggestions.

 One panel discussed the classification and standardization of climate-induced health complications, or health complications that result from the changing climate. To record, identify, analyze and exchange diagnostic information regarding health complications, the World Health Organization adopted a system called the International Classification of Disease Codes. However, there is an unmet need for classifying climate-induced health complications.

Dr. Robert Dubrow, co-faculty director of the YCCCH, spoke to the News about how these ICD codes could be amended. 

“There was discussion about actually creating new ICD codes that would be related to climate,” Dubrow said. “So not just like someone came down with gastroenteritis, but gastroenteritis due to a hurricane.” 

Another YCCCH panel assessed climate risk through the lens of health insurance providers. 

According to Wang, insurers must consider a wide range of climate scenarios, from hurricanes and flooding to heat and wildfires to sea level rise. 

Dr. Ann Kurth, president of the New York Academy of Medicine, explained health insurers’  unique vantage point in addressing climate adaptation efforts. 

“Health insurers, underwriters and actuarials—it’s their job to look ahead and evaluate risk,” Kurth said. “Historic risk will not address the problem that is coming at us. It has to be forward-looking.” 

Yet, climate-sustainable policy still faces challenges in its adoption, according to Ranney. 

She believes that the main hurdle is getting others to prioritize sustainability policy, particularly for health care systems that are struggling nationwide in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Very few health care systems across the country are on a solid financial footing,” Ranney said. “Trying to urge them to take action on this can be difficult, given all of the other really acute challenges that healthcare systems face.” 

The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health was founded in 2015. 

ANISH BEERAM