3.X.2. PechaKucha: Green skills for a sustainable future: building a climate-smart health and care workforce

Abstract Climate change is the defining health challenge of the 21st century, intensifying environmental risks, straining health systems, and deepening inequities. Health and care workers are on the front lines-yet most are not equipped with the competencies needed to address climate impacts or reduce healthcare's environmental footprint. This workshop responds to an urgent systems need: equipping the health workforce with green skills- including climate-health literacy, sustainable clinical practices, and low-carbon advocacy. These skills are essential for managing climate-related health risks, driving mitigation efforts, and embedding sustainability into care delivery, policymaking, and education systems. Participants will explore how cross-sector and European collaboration can drive the development and implementation of these green skills. The session will showcase the BeWell project, a European Commission-funded initiative dedicated to integrating green competencies into health workforce education and training. We will present key findings from the forthcoming 2025 Policy Brief on green skills for health and care workers including a national case study that exemplifies real-world implementation at the country level. Furthermore, we will share our skills monitor a tool that displays all available training courses for health and care workers as well as the newly created training courses developed by the consortium. While the links between climate and health are now well established, this session uniquely focuses on the upskilling of the workforce-a practical, scalable solution for resilient healthcare and public health. It brings forward new evidence and tools created through the BeWell project, outlines collaborative pathways for integration into policy and practice, and provides a space to shape the emerging agenda on workforce sustainability. This session is highly relevant to public health professionals, educators, policymakers, and system leaders seeking actionable strategies to build climate-smart, future-ready health systems. The key objectives of this workshop are to: • Define green skills and their importance in climate-resilient healthcare. • Share strategies and European initiatives supporting integration into training. • Present existing and new green skills training courses for health and care workers. • Explore policy and investment levers for scaling up workforce transformation. • Foster discussion on priorities and partnerships for action. The session will open with a keynote summarizing the 2025 policy brief, followed by succinct expert contributions from BeWell project leads, a national representative, a policy expert and the European Commission. A moderated panel discussion will address cross-cutting implementation challenges and opportunities. Audience engagement will be encouraged through real-time polling, interactive Q&A, and breakout discussions aimed at deepening dialogue and co-creating actionable insights. Key messages • Priorities for green skills and competencies include analysing and explaining risk, public health practice, climate-smart clinical practice, communication and advocacy. • Education and training in climate health literacy are needed across the workforce to enable front line staff to promote sustainable health practices. Speakers/Panellists Michelle Falkenbach European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels, Belgium Federica Margheri European Health Management Association, Brussels, Belgium Petronille Bogaert European Commission, Brussels, Belgium Andrea Schmidt Austrian Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria Ronald Batenburg NIVEL, Utrecht, Netherlands