The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has joined the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) to pursue its commitment towards climate action within pharmacy and healthcare.
The Alliance, which brings together a number of organisations including many Royal Colleges, Faculties of Health, the British Medical Journal, and the Lancet, coordinates action to amplify the voices of healthcare professionals towards climate change that protect and promote public health.
This comes after the RPS identified sustainability as an urgent issue for attention in 2021, and initiated a range of activities including:
- Issuing a declaration of a climate emergency
- Producing a series of policies with recommendations to reduce the environmental impact of medicines and pharmacy practice
- Committing to fully disinvest from fossil fuels by the end 2022.
On joining the Alliance, RPS president professor Claire Anderson said: “I’m delighted that the RPS is now a full member of UKHACC and to be representing RPS on the Alliance’s Council.
“Through raising awareness of healthcare’s impact on climate change and enabling health professional groups to speak with one voice, the UKHACC has a leading part in reducing the environmental impact of healthcare in the UK. With climate change being such a seismic challenge, collaboration of this kind is vital.
“It’s great that the RPS can now help support the Alliance’s work and bring our expertise in medicines and their impact on the environment to the table."
