The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

Today, the College is delighted to publish, alongside the Lancet and the Association of Anaesthetists, a policy brief for the UK presenting data from the 2020 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. The brief focuses on three key themes: sustainable and resilient cities, healthcare sector emissions, and reaching net zero across sectors.

In a leading effort to minimise the contribution of healthcare to climate change, the NHS in England has declared its ambition to deliver a ‘net zero health service’ by 2040.

Anaesthetic gases account for five per cent of the carbon footprint for acute organisations. Volatile anaesthetic gases such as desflurane, and nitrous oxide, are potent greenhouse gases. Clinicians should therefore be encouraged to restrict these gases to cases where they would reduce morbidity and mortality over all alternative drugs. Techniques such as low-flow anaesthesia using gases with lower greenhouse gas emissions, total intravenous anaesthesia, or regional anaesthetic techniques, which limit harmful emissions, can all contribute.

The College is committed to promotion of sustainability through our Strategic Plan 2018–2021, our Sustainability Strategy 2019–2022, and the Joint Environmental Policy Statement with the Association of Anaesthetists. You can learn more about our range of work to support the environment here.