48H - Understanding Climate Change: Opportunities for Healthcare Leadership

Tuesday, March 21

10:45–11:45 a.m.

Many world leaders now describe climate change as the “number one issue facing humanity” today and are calling for aggressive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions (GGE). In the United States and across the world, leaders of health systems are increasingly called to become advocates and role models in these efforts. Success will require a deeper understanding of how various parts of the economy intersect as a complex system in producing greenhouse gases, how policy changes may affect these patterns in the years ahead and the implications for health systems.

This engaging session is designed to enhance participants’ understanding of the complex system dynamics underlying climate change mitigation, empowering evidence-informed action. The session will begin by briefly introducing participants to the basics of earth systems science. It will then provide participants with hands-on experience in understanding how changing policies, technologies and social norms interact to affect GGE over time. This will be accomplished with the benefit of a state-of-the-art non-commercial simulation model (En-Roads), developed by MIT in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Climate Interactive. Implications of these emerging changes will then be examined in terms of how they may affect future health system operations, including pathways to organization-level decarbonization as well as evaluations of ESG, using real-world examples from health systems in the U.S. and abroad.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the effects of policy decisions on greenhouse gas emissions using a simulation model.
• Identify potential action steps organizational leaders can take in supporting decarbonization.