The link between healthcare and energy supply: How joined-up thinking can lead to more synergies between the two policy fields

Martin Keim, Maria Pastukhova, Maike Voss and Kirsten Westphal

No 14/2019, SWP Comments from Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Abstract: The connection between the policy fields of energy and health may be hard to grasp at first glance. Nevertheless, the negative externalities resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels are clearly identified. In January 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named climate change and air pollution as two of the greatest challenges to human health. A differentiated look at infrastructure, availability and quality of energy supply and healthcare as well as at access to both shows how closely intertwined these policy fields are. No modern hospital can operate without secure electricity supply and efficient cold chains are essential for storing vaccines. In line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the two policy fields must be designed and interlinked in such a way that they contribute to human security beyond national borders and take planetary boundaries into account. It is necessary to bring health and energy together and to create synergies between them. This would be an important step towards a swifter implementation of the SDGs.

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:swpcom:142019

DOI: 10.18449/2019A08

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