US healthcare contributes 8.5% of national greenhouse gas emissions, but its policies to guide mitigation and waste reduction are underdeveloped. We recommend national policies to streamline the adoption of best practices, address implementation challenges to achieve net-zero goals and serve as useful exemplars for other nations.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Eckelman, M. J. et al. Health Aff. 39, 2071–2079 (2020).
Singh, H., Eckelman, M., Berwick, D. M. & Sherman, J. D. N. Engl. J. Med. 387, 2469–2476 (2022).
Operational Framework for Building Climate Resilient and Low Carbon Health Systems (World Health Organization, 2023); https://go.nature.com/3WMDFJL
Sherman, J. D. & Singh, H. Jt Comm. J. Qual. Patient Saf. 49, 336–339 (2023).
Singh, H., Vernon, W., Scannell, T. & Gerwig, K. NAM Perspect. https://doi.org/10.31478/202311g (2023).
Part 482—Conditions of Participation for Hospitals (Code of Federal Regulations, 1986, updated 2024); https://go.nature.com/3LPkZmv
TEAM Decarbonization and Resilience Initiative (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, updated 2024); https://go.nature.com/3LR8WVY
Smith, M., Singh, H. & Sherman, J. D. JAMA 330, 1947–1948 (2023).
Acknowledgements
H.S. is partially funded by the Houston Veterans Administration (VA) Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (CIN13–413), the VA National Center for Patient Safety, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS028595 and R18HS029347). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of their funders, members of the Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Healthcare Sector or the Action Collaborative as a whole, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System or the US government.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
H.S. is a member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Healthcare Sector. E.C. declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cerceo, E., Singh, H. National policies to accelerate climate action in US healthcare. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02105-z
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02105-z
