NHS is aiming to become first ‘net zero’ health service

Having taken soundings from a wide range of stakeholders, receiving almost 650 responses to an initial call to evidence, it published a new report, Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service. This not only set out the actions and some of the most notable carbon reduction milestones achieved to date, but also identified the areas of activity – many of them estates and facilities-related – seen as offering the greatest short-to-medium term carbon emission reduction potential as part of the wider drive towards ‘net zero’. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports

In his foreword to the 76-page report, NHS CEO, Sir Simon Stevens, put the new publication into context by explaining that on 1 January 2020 the NHS launched a campaign, For a Greener NHS, to mobilise its more than 1.3 million staff, and ‘set an ambitious, evidence-based route map and date for the NHS to reach net zero’. Published on 1 October last year, Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service sets out the initial results of this work, the goals of which are for the NHS to reach net zero emissions for the care it provides (the NHS Carbon Footprint) by 2040, and zero emissions across the entire scope of its emissions (the so-called ‘NHS Carbon Footprint Plus’) by 2045. The report explains that these dates – and the activities that will help deliver the targets – have been informed by NHS staff, an international call for evidence, and the NHS Net Zero Expert Panel, which met regularly throughout 2020, ‘to provide guidance on the scale of ambition and the scope of change required’. The report says: “Over the last 10 years, the NHS has taken notable steps to reduce its impact on climate change. As the biggest employer in this country, there is more that the NHS can do. Action must not only cut NHS emissions, currently equivalent to 4% of England’s total carbon footprint, but also build adaptive capacity and resilience into the way care is provided. This action will lead to direct benefit for patients, with research suggesting that up to one-third of new asthma cases might be avoided as a result of efforts to cut emissions. This is because the drivers of climate change are also the drivers of ill health and health inequalities. For example, the combustion of fossil fuels is the primary contributor to deaths in the UK from air pollution, disproportionately affecting deprived and vulnerable communities.” 

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