Greener treatments: the NHS carbon footprint

With Earth Day having taken place on 22 April, the hefty targets and the pressure on the NHS to reduce its carbon footprint are a major priority for many. The NHS is the heaviest public-sector contributor to climate change, and the most recent figures show that the NHS in England alone is responsible for emitting 22.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (MtCO2e) (Sustainable Development Unit (SDU), 2019a; 2019b) and spending £50 million on carbon permits every year (King's Fund, 2019).

Carbon emissions from the NHS, public health and social care systems have reduced by 19% since 2007 despite activity increasing by 27% (NHS, 2019). However, there is some way to go in terms of meeting the targets to cut emissions by 34% by 2020, 51% by 2025 by and 80% (using 1990 as the baseline) by 2050 (NHS Digital, 2018; NHS, 2019).