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MoS Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar

Countries need to take concrete actions to improve the electrification of healthcare facilities: MoS Health

The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar said that more active discussion along with the identification of concrete actions to accelerate clean cooking and improve the electrification of healthcare facilities in the countries.

Addressing the Second meeting of the High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy virtually on  October 7, 2022, Dr Pawar said, “India firmly believes that these are the most critical areas which need more active discussion along with the identification of concrete actions to accelerate clean cooking and improve the electrification of healthcare facilities in the countries.”

Highlighting the Government of India’s vision of attaining 450GW of renewable generation by 2030, she stressed, “Constantly moving towards health centre electrification by combining health-related policies and energy-related policies with a target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022.”

“India is already ahead of what we pledged in our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs),” MoS said.

“Already 39% of our installed capacity is from non-fossil-based sources and by 2022 we will reach our target of 40%”, she added.

Underscoring steps taken on various fronts, the Union Minister of State informed that India has attained SDG target 7.1 of providing Universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services by 2030 by improving the electrification of 99.99% of the households. Also, India has successfully electrified 95% of district hospitals and around 90% of sub-divisional hospitals with a three-phased power supply. Cumulatively, almost 75% of the health centres in the country have been electrified with a cumulative solar capacity of 3.5MW.

She further informed that in the context of “Green and Climate Resilient Healthcare Facilities”, India is a signatory to the Malé Declaration in 2017 and has agreed to promote climate-resilient health- care facilities to be able to withstand any climatic events and ensure that essential services such as water sanitation, waste management, and electricity are functional during such events.

Highlighting key focus areas, she exhorted that urgent action is needed to scale up access to clean cooking solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on health, gender equality, and climate, among others, and ultimately to minimize the future negative effects of the climate crisis thereby facilitating the effective enjoyment of the human right to health.

She emphasised developing vibrant partnerships and creating synergy with other missions and ensuring that health is adequately represented in the climate change agenda across the globe. With such collaborations and collective action of this coalition group, a greener planet through the means of clean and green energy can be achieved.

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO, Director General, Dr Naoko Yamamoto, WHO, Assistant Director General, Dr Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate and Health, WHO and Dr Kandeh Yumkella, Member of Parliament, Sierra Leone were also present in the meeting.


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