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Emergency Physicians Advocate Addressing Climate Change To Improve Public Health
Similar challenges, whether patient boarding in emergency departments or health disparities related to exposure to poor air quality, connected climate change to existing legislative priorities for community health. The reality is that addressing health concerns lends itself to addressing climate change. Physicians are perfectly positioned to advocate for solutions to both, improving the health of our patients for generations to come.
The experience emergency physicians possess as frontline workers is critical to legislators. Legislative staffers have a bird’s-eye view of the issues facing communities, but they are eager to learn from the first-hand experiences of individuals whose lives reflect actual policy outcomes.
Physicians and nurses—some of the most trusted professionals in the nation—can synthesize the experience of individual patients, sharing powerful stories within the context of broader systemic issues. Health care professionals, particularly clinicians such as emergency physicians, have a pulse on people and communities essential to crafting, prioritizing, and implementing just policies in partnership with policymakers.
In the emergency department, physicians and support staff help individuals while often being unable to address the larger issues affecting their health. Our legislative advocacy, whether on Capitol Hill or in local government, is a crucial step toward addressing systemic issues while remaining rooted in the individual patient experience.
In the offices of lawmakers, emergency physician voices are sorely needed and deeply respected. One conversation can open opportunities for longitudinal conversations that influence policy and patient care. As climate change continues to shape our environment and health, organizations like MSCCH and ACEP need more physicians who can advocate for sustainable, patient-focused policies.
Health-Focused Strategies
Hill visits after the 2025 MSCCH annual meeting highlighted youth engagement and the public health community’s role in phasing out harmful pollutants such as soot and fossil fuels, and strategies for partnering with Indigenous and marginalized communities to improve health.
Environmental justice discussions during the conference focused on Indigenous knowledge, strengths-based approaches to partnering with under resourced communities such as farmers and migrant communities, and other approaches to developing health-focused mitigation, adaptation, and resilience strategies.
The MSCCH is not the only chance to see how climate change and health care priorities intersect. In May 2025, Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm hosted CleanMed, the premier national conference for leaders in health care sustainability. It is a platform for health care leaders to convene, collaborate, and conduct societal transformation for individual, community, and planetary health.
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