Because climate action is health action.
And health action includes surgery.
Climate risks are changing both the need for surgical care and the ability of health systems to deliver it. We connect climate science, frontline realities, sustainable practice and surgical health policy.
Where global surgery meets climate action.
Four connected dialogues. Seven thematic conversations. One shared ambition: surgical systems that are resilient, sustainable and equitable.
Surgery cannot sit outside the climate conversation.
Climate shapes the need for care
Floods, storms, heat and environmental exposures can affect injury patterns, disease risks, maternal emergencies and the demand for emergency and operative services.
Climate threatens continuity
Operating theatres depend on power, water, oxygen, transport, sterile instruments, staff, supply chains and working referral pathways. Climate shocks can disrupt any of them.
Surgery has an environmental footprint
Anaesthetic agents, operating-room energy, procurement, instruments and waste all matter. Improvements must protect clinical safety and quality.
Equity determines what is feasible
The same climate event affects hospitals and communities differently. An intervention is not sustainable if it makes essential care less accessible or less reliable.
Environmental-health associations are established for several exposures; precise climate-attributable changes in surgical demand remain an important research gap.
Four pillars. One connected surgical-health agenda.
Environmental determinants of surgical disease
Understand how environmental change intersects with trauma, procedural disease, obstetric needs and uneven access to care.
Climate intelligence & emergency preparedness
Translate hazards, early warnings and vulnerability assessments into operational readiness and continuity of emergency surgery.
Greener operating theatres
Improve perioperative environmental performance through clinically safe changes to anaesthesia, energy, waste and procurement.
Resilient infrastructure & equitable transformation
Bring energy access, water, transport, financing and sustainable infrastructure into climate-health and universal health coverage planning.
Climate Action Surgical Dialogues 2026
The Climate Action Surgical Dialogues are designed as a connected space for evidence-based exchange—not a one-off awareness campaign. The series links the causes of surgical need, emergency readiness, low-carbon clinical practice and equitable health-system transformation.
Through expert contributions and accessible explanations, the programme aims to connect clinical, public-health, policy and environmental perspectives. The four-part structure below describes the programme’s thematic design; individual session dates, speakers and published outputs will be announced when confirmed. You can register your interest now and request updates about opportunities as they arise.
Join the Climate Action Surgical Dialogues.
Interested in the 2026 dialogues or future opportunities to contribute? Use our interest and registration form to tell us you would like to participate and whether you would like to be notified as opportunities are announced.
Exposure & surgical need
Environmental determinants, disease burden and climate-sensitive surgical health risks.
Intelligence & readiness
Risk assessment, early warning, resilient referral and emergency operative care.
Greener perioperative care
Operating theatres, anaesthetic practice, resource stewardship and safety.
Systems transformation
Reliable infrastructure, equitable access, financing and implementation.
Programme framework presented as planned thematic content; this page does not imply that all four dialogues have already taken place.
Seven themes shaping sustainable surgical care.
Environment & surgical NCDs
Examine environmental exposures and their implications for noncommunicable diseases that may require procedural or surgical care.
Climate-related SDGs
Connect sustainable development, equity, health protection and surgical systems.
Disaster surgical response
Explore trauma, obstetric emergencies, referral networks and surgical readiness during crises.
Green operating rooms
Discuss anaesthesia, energy, instruments, waste and quality-preserving environmental improvements.
Climate-resilient systems
Address hospital continuity, workforce, supply chains, utilities and emergency planning.
Low-carbon surgery
Investigate feasible ways to reduce emissions across perioperative pathways.
The future of sustainable surgical care
Link evidence, implementation, governance and accountability across diverse health systems.
An evolving climate-action portfolio.
Climate-Ready Operating Theatres
A participatory workshop concept using a fictional heatwave-affected hospital to weigh clinical safety, operational resilience, equity and sustainability. Programme details are in development.
Climate and surgical-health policy engagement
Connecting surgical-system priorities to wider climate-health conversations, including international policy processes and interdisciplinary networks. Participation in particular events is not presumed.
Evidence translation & learning
Planned briefings and educational explainers to help convert climate-health evidence into practical questions for surgical services.
Partnership & collective action
Building connections across clinical practice, environmental health, youth engagement, public health and infrastructure planning.
Why surgical health belongs in climate policy.
Climate and health decisions influence national adaptation planning, health-sector emissions policies, financing, disaster preparedness and infrastructure investments. Yet essential surgical, obstetric, trauma, anaesthesia and critical care are often discussed indirectly rather than as explicit operational priorities.
InciSioN advocates substantive engagement: bringing surgical delivery realities and perspectives from different health-system settings into policy development, rather than treating event attendance as an end in itself.
Resilience.
Lower environmental harm.
Equitable access.
Protecting a theatre from disruption, reducing avoidable emissions and widening access are mutually reinforcing goals—not competing slogans.
Global Climate and Health Alliance.
The Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA) connects health organisations and advocates working to accelerate action on climate change because of its effects on human health.
InciSioN’s interest in engaging with this wider community reflects our commitment to bringing surgical systems, perioperative care, emergency preparedness and health equity into broader climate-health policy discussions.
We do not describe InciSioN as a formal GCHA member on the basis of an application alone.
Trusted frameworks and deeper learning.
WHO / Climate-resilient, low-carbon systems
A health-system operational framework linking preparedness, resilience, infrastructure, finance and emissions.
WHO / Climate change and health
WHO guidance and evidence on climate-related health risks.
UNFCCC / International climate governance
The Conference of the Parties and its place in global climate decision-making.
InciSioN / Climate intelligence & readiness
Our companion explainer on turning environmental information into protected surgical services.
Climate action is health action.
Essential surgical care must be part of both.
We work toward surgical systems that are safer in climate shocks, more environmentally responsible in everyday practice and more equitable for the communities they serve.