Health burden and costs attributable to the carbon footprint of the health sector in the European Union

Background

The healthcare sector has an environmental impact of around 4.6% of global CO2 emissions, contributing to aggravating the climate crisis. However, the impact of the health sector’s emissions on human health is not regularly assessed. We aim to estimate the health burden and associated costs of the health sector’s carbon footprint within the European Union (EU).

Methods

We calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and associated costs based on human health damage factors (DALYs/kg-CO2e) by considering four scenarios. Three scenarios for shared socioeconomic pathways (S1 – high growth, S2 − baseline, and S3 − low growth) represented variations of global society, demographics, and economics until 2100. A fourth scenario (S4) considered the current EU’s 55% reduction goal of greenhouse gas emissions. The healthcare sector’s emissions per capita (in CO2-equivalent) in 2019 were extracted from the Lancet Countdown, and population data were retrieved from Eurostat for the same year.

Results

In the EU, 365,047 DALYs (95%CI: 194,692–535,403) are expected to be caused by the health sector’s emissions at baseline (S2). In an S1 scenario, the burden would slightly decrease to 316,374 DALYs (95%CI: 170,355–462,393), whereas a S3 scenario would increase 486,730 DALYs (95%CI: 243,365–681,422). If EU’s carbon goals are met, the burden could be substantially reduced to 164,271 DALYs (95%CI: 87,611–240,931). Costs can amount to 25.6 billion euros, when considering DALYs monetisation.

Conclusion

CO2 emissions from the health sector are expected to significantly impact human health. Therefore, it is important to ensure that EU climate policies for public buildings are in line with the Paris Agreement, increase funding for climate mitigation programs within the healthcare sector, and review clinical practices at the local level.