Event

Mar 2022 29

Time: 11:00 AM

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Event transcript (edited for readability)

Speaker presentations

Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector Virtual Meeting

Name: Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector Virtual Meeting
Start: 2022-03-29T11:00:00-04:00
End: 2022-03-29T12:30:00-04:00

This free public meeting discussed health sector decarbonization in the U.S. and internationally, as well as presented the priorities and plans of the Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector (Climate Collaborative). Now watch on-demand:

AGENDA

11:00 | Welcome & Opening Remarks

11:10 | Federal Action to Decarbonize the U.S. Health Sector
ADM Rachel Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Full bio

Admiral Rachel L. Levine serves as the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She fights every day to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. She’s working to help our nation overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and build a stronger foundation for a healthier future – one in which every American can attain their full health potential. ADM Levine’s storied career, first, as a physician in academic medicine focused on the intersection between mental and physical health, treating children, adolescents, and young adults. Then as Pennsylvania’s Physician General and later as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, she addressed COVID-19, the opioid crisis, behavioral health and other public health challenges.

11:25 | Health Sector Decarbonization – A Global Perspective
Maria Neira, MD, MPH, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization

Full bio

Maria P. Neira has been directing the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland since September 2005. Throughout her tenure and up until now she has led and advised on policy and management in key areas of environmental health. Prior to that she served as Under-Secretary of Health and President of the Spanish Food Safety Agency. From 1993-1998 she was Coordinator of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control.

Dr Neira began her career as a medical coordinator working with refugees in El Salvador and Honduras for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). She then spent several years working in different African countries during armed conflicts. Born in the city of Oviedo, Asturias, Dr Neira is a Spanish national, a medical doctor by training and specialized in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases; and Public Health.

Among many distinctions, she has been awarded the Médaille de l’Ordre national du Mérite by the Government of France and received an “Extraordinary Woman” award by HM Queen Letizia of Spain. In early 2019, she was nominated among the top 100 policy influencers in health and climate change.

11:40 | Delivering a Net Zero NHS: Lessons Learned for the U.S. and Beyond
Nick Watts, MBBS, MA, Chief Sustainability Officer, NHS England

Full bio

Dr Watts is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the NHS, responsible for its commitment to deliver a world-class net zero emission health service. Based in London, he leads the Greener NHS team across the country, which focuses on improving the health of patients and the public through a robust and accelerated response to climate change and the broader sustainability agenda.

Nick is a medical doctor licensed in Australia and the UK, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians’ Faculty of Public Health.

Prior to the National Health Service, Nick worked internationally as the Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown and the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, a collaboration of UN agencies and academic centres across the world. He has also focused on engaging the health profession on the links between public health and climate change, having founded both the Global Climate and Health Alliance and the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.

11:55 | Priorities for Action: Presentations from the Climate Collaborative’s Working Groups

12:25 | Concluding Remarks

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