Overview

Key messages:

• Equipping the health and care workforce with ‘green skills’ is vital in enabling the health systems of the European Union (EU) to:
  • deal with the risks and (inequitable) health impacts of climate change;
  • change practice to reduce health systems’ emissions that contribute to climate change; and
  • communicate risks and raise public and community awareness of the link between climate change and health.
• Priorities for green skills and competencies include analysing and explaining risk, public health practice, climate-smart clinical practice, communication and advocacy.
• Education and training in climate-health literacy are needed across the workforce to enable front-line staff to promote sustainable health practices.
• Green skills education and training in Europe are still in their early stages but innovations in Member States and at the EU level offer useful lessons including on the value of involving health and care workers and their organizations; engaging communities; and mandating providers to adopt sustainable practice. Embedding climate goals in regulations and strategic plans and committed leadership also proved important.
• National and regional policy-makers can take concrete actions on green skills by:
  • providing leadership and increasing funding for education and training;
  • involving professional associations and health professionals in co-creating green skills education and training and in advocating for good practice;
  • establishing a systematic (well resourced) approach to education and training at all levels, encompassing continuing professional development (CPD) and accreditation, including for new skills and roles; and
  • ensuring cooperation across sectors (particularly health and education).
• Policy-makers need to address broader challenges so that green skill initiatives can have an impact. These include:
  • tackling the wider workforce issues (poor working conditions, overwork, staff shortages) that make it difficult for staff to take up education and training opportunities and which undermine motivation for greening. This implies improving planning, recruitment and retention;
  • working with health care organizations to integrate environmental sustainability and climate resilience into management and quality control;
  • developing comprehensive climate-smart health policies and strategies; and
  • investing in health promotion to reduce healthcare demand and environmental impact.