On 28 January, industry experts and policymakers discussed potential pathways to make the European healthcare sector more sustainable in a panel debate organised by ALDE Party and GSK.
Renew Europe First Vice-President Billy Kelleher MEP (Fianna Fáil, IE) moderated a discussion centred around the current state of environmental sustainability in the European healthcare system.
“Ireland, in terms of the pharmaceutical sector, is a dynamic space. But beyond that, we have to ensure the pharmaceutical sector plays its part in the green transition, in the digital economy and in the green economy to make it comply with the very ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2050,” said Kelleher.
“Doubling down on prevention-led, patient-centric healthcare is a real opportunity for Europe to lead and support that innovation of change and make sure we unblock some of the regulatory conflicting challenges around working with medical regulators, environmental policy and healthcare providers,” added Claire Lund, GSK Vice-President for Environmental Sustainability.
“Sustainability is much broader than decarbonising, and the healthcare sector certainly has a big role to play in it. The preventive element is one of the roles that the healthcare sector has to play in promoting a clean and healthy environment, because you can’t have one without the other,” said Ian Marnane, Head of Unit on Pollution and Health at the European Environment Agency.
“From the perspective of the European Commission, these are going to be five years where sustainable competitiveness will be the two key words. We can develop a lot of technologies, but we need a dialogue between regulators and innovators,” commented Carmen Laplaza Santos from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).
You can check out all the pictures from the event on our Flickr album and rewatch the panel debate below or on our YouTube channel.