Winners of the 2023 Health Care Climate Challenge (HCCC) have been announced! Five Pacific health institutions have been recognised for their climate action within the health sector.

All five organisations are members of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network, coordinated regionally by the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA).

Each year, institutions at the forefront of health care climate action are celebrated with Health Care Without Harm's (HCWH) Health Care Climate Challenge awards. These hospitals and health systems are pioneering innovative and effective solutions to mitigate health care’s climate footprint and enhance their resilience. They are beacons around the world guiding the health care sector on its climate-smart journey. 

This year's cohort of Climate Challenge participants is made up of an impressive 200+ institutions from 18 countries!

This year, the challenge added two new award categories in addition to the exisiting 'Health Care Climate Action Awards' category. The categories are as follows:

• Health Care Climate Action Awards - The Health Care Climate Action Awards will continue to cover the three pillars of the Challenge: Mitigation, Leadership, and Resilience. Depending on the number and nature of actions reported, participants may receive a Silver Award or a Gold Award.
• Health Care Climate Commitment Cohort of 2023 - true climate leaders with a strong commitment to comprehensive climate action and a dedication to continuously improving sustainable practices across the three pillars of climate action. 
• Health Care Climate Champions Awards - A new, high level award was introduced in 2023 to celebrate the top three institutions of each region that stood out for their ambitious, comprehensive, and consistent work in climate action throughout the year.

The 2023 Pacific winner of the Health Care Climate Champions Award is The Eye Surgery Hastings (New Zealand), congratulations!

A big congratulations to the Pacific winners of the Health Care Climate Action awards; Ambulance Victoria, Hunter New England Local Health District (Australia), CAHA member Your Community Health and The Eye Surgery Hastings (New Zealand) and the recipient of the Health Care Climate Commitment Cohort of 2023; UnitingCare (Australia)!

We are honoured to receive these awards and to be a part of a global community of health care institutions on every continent leading the transformation to climate-smart health care. We celebrate this moment with everyone at Your Community Health and with our colleagues around the world. And we look forward to the work that lays ahead as we strive to protect the future health of our community, environment and planet.

- Your Community Health

Media contact: Sally Spalding, [email protected] OR 0401 184 986