Looking ahead in light of COP29

We are now a week into the 2024 Conference of the Parties (COP24), which is the UN annual climate change conference. Today is the day they focus on health and rightly so. Health and climate change are intertwined – the impact of climate change on population health is well documented, along with the high level of emissions that health services produce – in fact the NHS makes up around 4% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Whatever the view is of how successful COP29 proves to be, it is a pertinent moment to reflect on the progress that independent healthcare providers are making in the collective journey to net zero.

IHPN is the membership association for independent healthcare providers and for the past three years we have been actively supporting our members in their own efforts towards net zero. It is increasingly becoming clearer that although speed is of the essence it is not important who is first across the line but rather how quickly we can support everyone to finish. And so, our support has consisted of two main aspects – providing subject matter expertise to inform providers of what they should and could be doing across a range of areas including baselining and reporting, managing supply chains and green investments and, increasingly importantly, providing an opportunity for providers to share best practice with each other. In the past year there have been some brilliant examples of work across the industry – whether that be the removal of desflurane and the decommissioning of nitrous manifolds, expansion of clinical waste segregation, fitting of solar panels, carbon reduction projects spearheaded by clinicians, and effective staff campaigns encouraging employees to reduce unnecessary electricity consumption and recycle more and many more.

And underlying all of this is a collective aspiration of what we are all aiming for – which is to be net zero for scopes 1 and 2 (broadly direct emissions) by 2035, and scope 3 (supply chain) by 2045 – with the vast majority of IHPN members having now signed up to this commitment.

But of course, while much progress has been made, complicated work still lies ahead of us. The sector is now focussing on its supply chain to support it to net zero. And similarly, we have worked with the Association of British Insurers and the private medical insurers to help support providers to better demonstrate the progress being made in achieving net zero carbon emissions – a great example of how we can all work together.

Over the next 12 months, we will continue to work with our members to understand the knotty challenges that they are facing – we know that this will look quite different whether you are a hospital or a community services provider employing district nurses. And of course because no one is net zero until we’re all net zero, we are also sharing all our learning with our colleagues in the NHS and value the support they provide us as a key part of their supply chain.

If you would like to find out more about IHPN and the work we are doing to support our members please contact Assistant Director Policy and Programmes Danielle Henry.