The health care sectors of OECD countries, India, and China contribute a significant part to their national carbon footprints. Our new study shows a first international comparison of health carbon footprints and explores ways to reduce them without compromising health care.
Climate change confronts the health care sector with a dual challenge. Accumulating climate impacts are putting an increased burden on the service provision of already stressed health care systems in many regions of the world. At the same time, the Paris agreement requires rapid emission reductions in all sectors of the global economy to stay well below the 2 °C target. Our study shows that in OECD countries, China, and India, health care on average accounts for 5% of the national CO2 footprint.
CarbonBrief published a helpful summary of our original study.
