So, how are you or your trust going to cut your carbon emissions by 10% over the next year?
That’s the question that a new, high profile campaign, called 10:10, is asking of everyone. And it’s expecting people and organisations to sign up and take a pledge on how they’re going to achieve it.
The 10:10 campaign is particularly interested in getting the health sector on board and had already signed up 11 medical bodies for its national launch last week.
Health organisations, such as NHS South West, St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, jointly signed a letter outlining the business and social thinking behind why they’re supporting the campaign.
On the business side, reducing their dependence on oil, with its rapidly increasing and fluctuating price, is cited as a key reason.
“Legislation and regulation will increasingly penalise those organisations who do not take bold steps to cut their emissions and become more environmentally sustainable,” the letter says.
The campaign also recognises the funding challenges the NHS is going to face in the future. “Given the financial forecast for the NHS, cutting our spending on energy is one way to increase productivity and efficiency,” the letter adds.
On the social side, the campaign claims that climate change is part of the health service’s responsibility to care for the population. The letter explains: “We believe it would be highly inappropriate for NHS organisations not to take significant steps to reduce their contribution to the problem. As reported by The Lancet and UCL Commission: ‘Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st Century.’”
The University College London report warns that climate change risks huge death tolls caused by disease, food and water shortages and poor sanitation.
The authors said the NHS would face serious incremental pressures from heat and hygiene-related illnesses because of increasingly hot summers, greater pathogen spread with warmer temperatures and the heightened risk of flooding.
On launching the report in May, Professor Anthony Costello, a paediatrician and director of UCL Institute for Global Health, said the health lobby “had come to the issue late and should be saying more”.
The 10:10 campaign believes that, because of its profile, the NHS can be a trail blazer on reducing carbon emissions. “The NHS is the largest organisation in the UK, the largest employer in Europe and one of the large employers in the world. We must demonstrate leadership at this critical time in our history. If we can deliver a 10% cut in our emissions in 2010 so can other organisations in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,” the letter says.
It’s not just health organisations and professionals getting involved; it’s a campaign that is trying to bring change across every sector of society. Expressions of support have been received from as diverse sources as football clubs, such as Tottenham Hotspur; actors, such as Gillian Anderson and Pete Postlethwaite; and leading influencers, such as Sir Nicholas Stern, former head of the Government Economic Service and author of the influential report on the economics of climate change.
In 2006, Stern published an influential report warning that climate change could shrink the global economy by 20%, but taking action now would cost just 1% of global domestic product. His report went on to say that without action, up to 200 million people could become refugees as their homes are hit by drought or flood.
The 10:10 campaign has been launched to encourage people to show the government that they have got a mandate to reduce carbon emissions. And it also seeking to influence the outcome of the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.10:10 campaign and visit www.1010uk.org. If you want to publically state what you intend to do in 2010 to reduce emissions, The Guardian is running an online pledge service.
Tags: Climate change
