Doctors Without Borders commits to reduce carbon emissions to help safeguard the health of the most vulnerable

The climate crisis hits people in the most vulnerable situations the hardest

In many Doctors Without Borders project locations, our medical humanitarian teams are responding to situations that are linked to the changing environment. This includes increasing numbers of people with infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera, as a result of changing rainfall and temperature patterns. There are also increasing cases of zoonotic diseases (transmitted from animals to humans) due to rising pressure on the environment; and more frequent extreme weather events, such as cyclones, hurricanes and droughts, which can contribute to malnutrition. In many places where we work today, our teams see people with multiple health needs resulting from frequent epidemics, food insecurity, conflict and displacement, which are all exacerbated by the climate emergency.

Urgency to act

Building on Doctors Without Borders' 2020 Environmental Pact, we recognise the need to make real and immediate changes in order to help curb the health impacts of climate change. This is why we are pledging to drastically reduce our emissions in this decade and why we are joining the nearly 200 humanitarian organisations who have signed the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations.

As an emergency medical organisation, our priority will always be to provide rapid assistance to people in some of the world’s most remote places, but we must find a way to do this while minimising our environmental footprint. Within Doctors Without Borders, across the humanitarian sector and in the whole of society, we must change how we operate. This will not be easy, but will only become more necessary as climate change increasingly exacerbates humanitarian emergencies.