Climate resilience and powering healthcare

Public healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries are at the frontline of dealing with the health impacts of the climate crisis. Nearly one billion people in low- and lower-middle-income countries are served by healthcare facilities that do not have reliable electricity access or have no electricity access at all (World Health Organization (WHO) et al. 2023). Healthcare facilities require a reliable and clean source of electricity to respond to the increase in vector-borne diseases, air pollution, heat stress, malnutrition and other impacts of climate change (Health & Climate Network 2021; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2021). Presenting a double threat to energy infrastructure for healthcare facilities, climate change will increase facilities' energy needs for dealing with climate-related impacts on public health and simultaneously disrupt the supply of energy to facilities. 

This study is the first comprehensive exploration of how climate change affects the energy infrastructure of healthcare facilities and identifies strategies to mitigate these risks. By adding a resilience lens to Sustainable Energy for All’s Powering Healthcare programme, the research leverages insights from national and international experts, scholarly literature, and publicly available data. Focusing on Kenya, India, and Barbados, the project provides diverse, context-specific findings that inform scalable solutions for enhancing energy security and healthcare resilience.

Challenges

We supported Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) to study how climate change affects the energy infrastructure of healthcare facilities, in terms of three aspects: weather and climate events; exposure; and vulnerability (IPCC, 2012). Below figure indicates, these three components determine the level of climate risk for healthcare facilities and therefore the likelihood that they will face climate change impacts.

To provide a broad picture of the impacts on low- and middle-income countries, this study uses available data and expert interviews to present the level of risk facing the energy infrastructure of healthcare facilities in Kenya, India, and Barbados:

Expertise

There is a long list of possible measures that can increase the resilience of healthcare facility energy infrastructure, but there is no one-size-fits-all prescription. However, based on the IEA’s four criteria for resilient energy systems, we have identified four resilience pathways, which can be applied to healthcare facilities, when faced with climate shocks and stress.

Although many resilience solutions are already being promoted by governments and development partners due to the other benefits they provide, such as improved energy access and cost savings. However, actual uptake remains limited and fragmented, and if climate change risks are not integrated into the design and implementation of all healthcare facility infrastructure projects, there is a high chance that resilience measures will be missed. For example, the resilience benefits of a standalone solar system for a healthcare facility will be missed unless it is fitted with a battery (so it provides power during grid outages) and it is protected from extreme weather (e.g. the battery elevated to avoid flood water, and a lightning conductor to protect the inverter).

Impact

The study provides three key suggestions to partners working on powering healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. 

1. Enable collaboration between health, clean energy, and climate stakeholders. This means bringing together the three different communities of practice that are looking at this issue from the perspectives of clean energy for healthcare, climate resilient healthcare and resilient energy systems.
2. Pursue co-benefits for resilience from powering healthcare initiatives. For example, ensuring that programmes underway that are installing solar energy systems for public healthcare facilities are incorporating risk reduction measures in the design, placement and management of the systems.
3. Proactively promote a set of resilience solutions that most facilities will benefit from. For example, three such solutions could be energy-efficient fans, solar direct drive (SDD) vaccine refrigerators, and cool roofs. If all the healthcare facilities that require such solutions in Kenya, India, and Barbados were to adopt them the total investment that governments and partners would need to mobilise in each country would be USD5.8 million, USD54 million, and USD0.2 million, respectively.

We are thankful to our former colleagues Madhu Sudan Gautam and Sunit Kumar Arya for their work on this project.

Banner image: SEforALL