Health Care Feels the Heat: A Primer for Radiologists on Climate Change–Related Regulatory and Policy Trends

Abstract

In the ensuing decade, health care will encounter risks and opportunities stemming from a regulatory and policy environment that is increasingly shaped by the climate crisis. The startling multiplication of climate change–related extreme weather events has increased public support for action, creating pressure on policymakers and regulatory agencies to provide solutions. Health care must decarbonize along with other sectors of the economy; therefore, health care organizations should be prepared to respond to climate-related regulations and take advantage of abundant green energy incentives to achieve the largest greenhouse gas emissions reductions possible and capture financial opportunities related to the national green energy transition. Radiology is an energy-intensive specialty; therefore, radiologists can have a powerful voice in efforts to decarbonize their organizations and will be more effective advocates if they have a basic understanding of the broader national and international climate change–related regulatory and policy trends. The necessity to address climate change is ever clearer; we can either help our organizations lead in these efforts, or we can wait for policymakers and health care regulators to dictate our actions.