We work in some of the most climate-vulnerable settings in the world, responding to many of the world’s most urgent crises – conflict, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and displacement.
The health emergencies we are already responding to in these locations will increase in scale and severity as the climate crisis accelerates. Humanitarian situations are aggravated by the climate crisis and the world’s most vulnerable people are hit the hardest.
In multiple countries where we work, a significant proportion of the health problems we respond to are climate-sensitive.
Urgent action must be taken now if the world is to remain a safe place to live. We want to do our share and we will do everything we can to reduce our environmental footprint.
To reduce our carbon footprint we first needed to know the full scope of our emissions. We have calculated our emissions and now know where we must improve.
How will we reach this target? 90% of the total reduction will be reached through 8 solutions:
Reduce air travel
Sea and road freight v. air freight
Repair and recycling of equipment
Avoid and reduce waste
Car fleet size, composition and movements
Environmental criteria for purchases
Deployment of renewable energy
Reduce energy consumption
“The clock is ticking. We are already seeing how the people we serve in places like Mozambique, Honduras and Niger have been hit hard by climate shocks” says Stephen Cornish, MSF’s General Director. “We will reduce our emissions and review how we conduct our operations. We have a medical and ethical obligation to our patients and their families to not to harm them or their environment as a result of our practices.”
