CLIMATE EMERGENCY: THE ROLE OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Attention has recently been paid to the contribution of health services to greenhouse gas emissions: the climate footprint of healthcare worldwide is equivalent to approximately 5% of global net carbon emissions, a value equivalent to approximately double the entire air transport (1).
If the health sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter on the planet (2).
Given that clinical activities are responsible for approximately 80% of the climate footprint of health services, the role of professionals is fundamental for its possible reduction (3). Consider, for example, that a thousand blood tests (formula, hemoglobin, hematocrit) produce the CO2 equivalent of 700 km traveled by car and a single MRI produces the CO2 equivalent of a car traveling 145 km.
The control of overuse, such as that implemented through the Choosing Wisely campaigns, is therefore considered among the most important measures to contain the climatological footprint of health services (4), as well as a valid tool for avoiding waste and improving the quality and safety of care.
Choosing Wisely International (5) supports the important role of Choosing Wisely campaigns towards climate change, encouraging awareness and assumption of responsibility among healthcare professionals and their professional societies around the world.
The important magazine BMJ has recently launched a campaign (6, 7, 8) to reduce carbon emissions in the healthcare sector by addressing concrete actions that healthcare professionals can and must undertake: among them the implementation of the Choosing Wisely recommendations is repeatedly reported in order to avoid or reduce unnecessary or even harmful practices which amount, according to all estimates, to at least 20-30% of the total (9).