The Big Question: Is the healthcare industry doing more harm than good in the climate crisis?
If the healthcare industry was a country, it would be the fifth largest polluter on Earth.
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00:00 Human health impact is becoming the face of climate change.
00:04 Stop the neglect of neglected tropical diseases.
00:07 They very often affect marginalized populations to begin with,
00:11 but we'll see those diseases spreading.
00:14 Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews
00:23 where we answer some of the biggest questions on the world agenda.
00:26 We're here in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum.
00:29 And we're joined by Dr. Lukas Hegemann,
00:32 the President of Global Health and Sustainability at Novartis.
00:34 So one of the big topics here at Davos this year is climate change.
00:38 Over the past 20 years, a climate crisis has become more of a crisis and more threatening.
00:41 What health conditions have we seen become more prevalent across the world?
00:44 I think it's fair to say that human health impact is becoming the face of climate change.
00:50 And of course, we see this predominantly in infectious diseases,
00:54 vector-borne diseases that have long been eradicated from certain countries.
00:59 If you take malaria or dengue fever on the rise,
01:02 and there's WHO projection even about the increased number of death cases
01:07 that we'll see as a consequence of global warming.
01:10 But then it's not limited to the infectious diseases,
01:13 but even non-communicable diseases are changing their pattern and increasing in severity.
01:19 For instance, if you look at respiratory disorders as a consequence of air pollution,
01:25 but even psychological conditions as a consequence of stress of noise and exposure.
01:30 So it's quite broad.
01:32 We're seeing a rise in global temperatures.
01:40 What effect does that have on the body and what health complications can that lead to long term?
01:45 Yeah, for instance, dehydration.
01:46 It's a major factor that we see as a direct consequence of warming.
01:50 But I would say the global warming predominantly will manifest itself
01:54 with a rise and a spread of communicable diseases,
01:59 vector-borne diseases that will attack patient populations
02:02 that for many, many years have not lived with a disease like that.
02:06 And that's what we need to address.
02:08 How will they spread more?
02:09 And how is that linked to climate change?
02:11 Yeah, that really has to do with the global warming,
02:13 which opens up new habitats for the mosquitoes, for instance, that carries the disease.
02:18 You see flooding, for instance, stagnant water is an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
02:24 As we all know from the summertime and with these changes,
02:28 we see, of course, much more favourable conditions
02:32 for the vectors that carries the disease and then ultimately that leads to the spread.
02:37 Yeah. And so does that include things like neglected tropical diseases?
02:41 And can you explain a little bit more?
02:42 What are they and why do we need to stop neglecting them?
02:45 Neglected tropical diseases is an umbrella term
02:48 of about 20 diseases that are neglected.
02:51 And by that we mean they are not necessarily getting the funding that they need.
02:56 They don't get the attention from researchers.
02:59 They very often affect marginalised populations to begin with.
03:03 And that's sort of what constitutes that neglect.
03:06 But we'll see those diseases spreading.
03:09 So we have to stop the neglect of neglected tropical diseases
03:13 because they will rise in importance.
03:15 But they are also, for the time being, a very important barrier
03:19 to making greater progress in global health.
03:22 And we shouldn't forget that we've made tremendous strides
03:25 in containing disease over the last 20 years or so.
03:29 We have halved childhood mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa.
03:32 HIV/AIDS, when I was still practising as a physician, was a death sentence.
03:37 It's become now a well manageable, almost chronic disease.
03:41 So we shouldn't forget about those great advancements that we've seen.
03:44 But then those are being threatened now by the climate change
03:48 and the consequences that it has, particularly on the infectious diseases.
03:52 Obviously, we've talked about the problems that climate change brings on people's health.
04:03 But also, I think I read an op-ed that you wrote where you talked about,
04:07 you know, the pharmaceutical industry is kind of in a vicious circle of
04:10 you're producing medicines to alleviate the effects of climate change,
04:13 but actually the production of medicine
04:16 also contributes emissions to the climate crisis.
04:19 And how polluting is the pharmaceutical industry?
04:23 Well, the overall healthcare sector
04:25 contributes about 5% to the global greenhouse gas emissions.
04:30 That's not just the pharmaceutical industry, but that's hospitals.
04:33 And hospitals actually are very significant polluter,
04:36 despite the great benefits that we all enjoy when we fall sick.
04:39 But I think we have to make sure that we deliver the positive impact
04:44 that we want to deliver on humanity through our medicines
04:47 in the most climate conscious way.
04:50 And that has led us to adopt climate targets that I would say are fairly ambitious.
04:56 So we have a net zero target by 2040 for waste reduction.
05:01 We have almost reduced our waste volume by more than 50% in just a few years.
05:07 Water quality matters a lot because we need pure water to manufacture high quality medicines.
05:13 We have to look holistically, of course, at what can we do
05:16 to make sure that we deliver our benefit with the minimum impact that we can have.
05:22 That brings me to my final question.
05:31 So if we're looking into the future and maybe 10 years in the future,
05:33 how do you see the future of your work?
05:35 Yeah, I think climate change is certainly one important factor
05:39 that exacerbates certain situations, accelerates certain trends.
05:43 But it's not the only one.
05:44 I mean, if you look at geopolitical instability,
05:47 many of the effects on health that I just cited as a consequence of climate change
05:52 could be potentially triggered by geopolitical changes.
05:56 And so if you think about the refugee situation, about access to health care,
06:00 universal health coverage, strength of primary health systems, all of that.
06:04 If you think about pandemics, I think what's critically important
06:07 is that we build resilient health systems.
06:09 And that's predominantly investing in the primary health care,
06:13 bringing the health care to the patient rather than the patient
06:16 to the health care system.
06:18 I think we need to stay the course on the elimination of diseases of poverty,
06:23 very often infectious diseases, because they just have a negative effect
06:28 on the livelihood of communities.
06:30 And I think it is actually a shame that we haven't made a lot more progress
06:34 despite all the progress that we have made already.
06:37 So I think the global health area will be exciting.
06:40 It will be busy, and it's certainly not becoming any less demanding
06:44 than it was the last 30 years that I was in it.
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