Race to Zero Aims to Eliminate Global Emission by 2050.

MedTech Outlook | Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Race to Zero aims to eliminate at least 50 percent of global emission by 2030 and complete elimination by 2050.

FREMONT, CA: It's no surprise that the climate crisis is already impacting public health negatively. While the worsening air quality causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, injuries and premature deaths are due to extreme weather events. Certain infectious diseases are also emerging as climate change has altered its geographical prevalence. It's probably immeasurable to know as years pass if these events will occur more devastating and frequent, and how they will affect mental health.

Hospitals and medical innovators offer products and services which are partly the solution and partly the problem. Through things like transport, energy consumption, and the manufacturing, use, and disposal of products, the global healthcare sector has made significant contributions. Healthcare's climate footprint is found to be equal to 4.4 percent of global new emissions which is further equivalent to two gigatons of carbon dioxide yearly as per the 2019 report from Arup. If the healthcare sector was taken in terms of the country, then it would rank as the fifth-largest emitter in the world.

However small steps like modifying analgesic gas and multinational initiatives have been taken to cut the healthcare's carbon footprint. Furthermore, the Medical Device Network has described notable ways that the medical industry attempts to go green. To take swift and immediate action to cut down 50 percent of global emissions by 2030, an UN-backed global campaign named Race to Zero is seeking to rally state organizations, from private companies to financial and educational institutions and even entire regions and cities.

The Climate Ambition Alliance was launched by the President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, at the UNSG's Climate Action Summit 2019; Race to Zero has mobilized several organizations including High-Level Climate Action Champions - Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Munoz - of the UK and Chile respectively. The readiness to aim for the realistic deadline to halve emissions by 2030 and complete elimination of global emission by 2050, must be demonstrated as a stringent criterion by all Race to Zero members.