Call for Papers for Special Issue on Climate Change
Dear Partners in Climate Change Research,
The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health (WestJEM) plans a Special Issue on, “Climate Change and Its Impacts upon Delivery of Emergency Care,” to be published in the Winter of 2026. To bring greater emphasis to the issues surrounding the impacts of climate change on human health and environmental stewardship in health care delivery, we are dedicating an entire special issue to this topic. Papers will be accepted on a rolling basis, published electronically, and sent to PubMed, and ultimately, compiled in a dedicated issue.
WestJEM has been committed to publishing Social Emergency Medicine and Population Health research for the past 17 years. Climate change is clearly a population health issue. Impacts span from exacerbations of chronic disease secondary to extreme weather events such as heat waves, threats to food and water security, and an increase in overall disease burden due to pollution in our air, water, and food systems. Evidence shows that these impacts are not always evenly distributed across the population, and those of lower socioeconomic status, outdoor workers, children, the elderly, and the homeless population tend to bear a higher burden of impacts.
As various sectors are called to mobilize towards building a more sustainable future, the health care sector too must mobilize, and is charged with an even greater responsibility of providing robust, evidence-based and climate-informed care to frontline communities in need. In the United States, credible estimates suggest that health care contributes around 8.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, which puts the US health care sector 13th in the world for emissions generation, and ahead of the entire United Kingdom. Health care is responsible for about 4% of the global burden.
WestJEM will consider papers that directly or indirectly address climate change, including papers about approaches to decarbonize health care delivery, mitigate the production of emissions, and create more resilient and adaptable health systems as we prepare to serve our communities in the face more unpredictable climate events.
Many health facilities are already starting to tackle their responsibility to address climate change. For example:
- Many facilities have adopted new food service programs to decrease the amount of animal-based protein, a known source of emissions, and present more plant-forward menus available to patients, employees, and visitors, thus resulting in a smaller climate footprint and financial benefits for the organization.
- Large health systems have quantified the reduction in emissions resulting from increasing the availability of telemedicine patient visits, while experiencing the co-benefit of expanding access to care for more vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations.
- Other systems have implemented plans to replace petroleum-powered ambulances with electrical fleets, and switch from fossil fuel-based energy sources to renewables in their facilities.
- Medical and graduate education has also rapidly embraced novel approaches to teaching future generations of clinicians about the importance of climate-informed care.
- These are but several examples, offered to illustrate broadly the range of papers which would be eligible for this special issue.
The Co-Guest Editors for the Special Issue on Climate Change are:
- Gary Gaddis, MD, PhD, MAAEM, FIFEM from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine (garymgaddis86@gmail.com)
- Emily Sbiroli, MD, DCM from the University of Colorado Climate and Health Program (emily.sbiroli@cuanschutz.edu)
Papers can be submitted at: westjem.com/submit-manuscript. Please label submissions clearly for consideration for the Special Issue. The deadline to submit papers for this special issue is October 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Please reach out to the Co-Guest Editors for this Special issue if you have any questions regarding this Special Issue (emails provided above). Please reach out to editor@westjem.org if you have any questions regarding our submission process. Please join us in this further step toward improving the care of patients affected by Climate Change.
Best Regards,
Mark I. Langdorf, MD, MHPE, FACEP, MAAEM
Editor-in-Chief, WestJEM