Mitigation refers to efforts that reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) recognizes that climate change poses significant challenges to communities around the world already vulnerable due to conflict, economic insecurity, and/or lack of access to healthcare. Therefore, MSF is committed to promoting mitigation efforts that reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions, aiming to alleviate the health and humanitarian consequences of climate change, especially for those most affected.
It is important to recognize that there is no single pathway for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But there are many ways in which humanitarian organizations can do so. It is essential to implement a diverse range of measures across areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
These key areas include:
- Improved energy efficiency
- Improved waste management
- Sustainable transportation
- Sustainable consumption and production
- Transition to renewable energy
Over the past decades, MSF has undertaken a wide range of mitigation actions including initiatives such as promoting solar use in Chad and Afghanistan back in the 1990s, implementing improved waste management projects in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in recent years, and numerous other impactful endeavors.
In 2017 and 2019, MSF took significant institutional steps to recognize our environmental impact and made a steadfast commitment to reducing our carbon and environmental footprint. Moreover, in 2022, MSF further solidified this commitment by pledging to reduce our carbon footprint by 50 per cent by 2030, in alignment with science-based targets and the Paris Agreement. Achieving this ambitious goal requires the implementation of multiple concurrent climate mitigation activities, alongside our ongoing efforts in adaptation.
MSF efforts to mitigate climate change are driven by a multitude of initiatives, from large-scale initiatives such as Transformational Investment Capacity projects (TIC), Climate Smart MSF, to the dedicated activities undertaken by MSF entities across our global network, as well as valuable collaboration with partners. Through the coordination and synergy of these initiatives, MSF aims to make a significant impact and pave the way for a more sustainable and future-proofed organization that can best support the communities we work with.