Single global platform on carbon data for healthcare products

University of Birmingham data experts have helped to create the first global carbon analytics database – a valuable new resource that will help hospitals and clinics save money, reduce waste, improve patient care, and tackle climate change.

From pharmaceuticals and surgical instruments to chest X-rays and blood tests, The Lancet MedZero platform provides comprehensive carbon analytics across the full spectrum of healthcare.

Convened by The Lancet and developed by an international academic consortium led by National University of Singapore, the database has over 14,000 entries at launch. The platform is a global collaboration of clinicians, engineers, data scientists, economists, and public health professionals working to support healthcare decarbonisation worldwide.

If healthcare were a country, it would be the world’s fifth largest carbon emitter – between the European Union and the Russian Federation - with sector CO2 emissions higher than aviation and shipping combined. Yet, until now, carbon data has been available for less than 1% of the products a clinician or a health system uses each day.

The platform is built to inform decisions at every level of the health system. For example:

• A health policymaker in the UK could identify that a simple switch from polluting incineration to recycling would avoid over 311,000 tonnes of CO2e (equivalent to taking 212,000 British cars off the road), saving £76 million each year as a result.

• A hospital CEO in Singapore, can see transitioning to reusable surgical gowns would reduce CO2e emissions by 4,407 tonnes (equivalent to the annual electricity use of 3,159 Housing & Development Board households in Singapore), saving around 700,000 SGD annually.

• National procurement experts across the world can compare logistics alternatives, saving over 3.85 million tonnes of CO2e by shifting to lower-carbon freight options for pharmaceuticals, such as shipping, globally (equivalent to nearly twice the national emissions of Malta).

The University of Birmingham led work on novel methods and artificial intelligence – including development of the evidence provenance and quality framework underpinning every carbon estimate. This is a structured, machine-readable system tracking how results are produced and defining how they can be used in decision-making.

Professor Slava Jankin, Chair in Data Science and Government at the University of Birmingham said: “Clinicians and procurement teams are being asked to decarbonise healthcare without the evidence to do it effectively. The Lancet MedZero changes that. Our role is to ensure the evidence is robust and transparent - every carbon estimate is traceable, clearly labelled for quality, and explicit about the decisions it can support. Getting the science right is what turns this from something impressive into something genuinely useful.”

Birmingham is also advancing methods to combine data from multiple sources into single, reliable estimates that properly reflect uncertainty. The team is developing tools to rapidly extract evidence from scientific literature and approaches to identify where new data will have the greatest impact. This work draws on expertise from the University’s Centre for AI in Government (CAIG) and the Institute for Data and AI.

The NHS has committed to reaching net zero by 2040 for direct emissions and 2045 for its supply chain - the most ambitious target of any national health system. Delivering on this requires detailed, product-level carbon data at a scale not previously available.

The University of Birmingham is now coordinating a Horizon Europe proposal to scale the platform’s impact, including enhanced evidence governance, combined carbon and resilience assessments, and real-world testing across healthcare settings, including NHS England.

The platform’s launch at the 79th World Health Assembly brought together the Editor in Chief of The Lancet, the Minister of Health of the Philippines, the International Medical Secretary for Doctors Without Borders, the UK NHS’s Chief Sustainability Officer, and the Permanent Secretary of the Thailand Ministry of Public Health.

Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, said: “The climate crisis is a health crisis. But climate action depends on credible data. The Lancet MedZero plans to create a shared global infrastructure of knowledge about the carbon footprint of health systems. Measurement is the foundation of accountability, and accountability is the motivation for action.”

Healthcare and climate change

More than 100 countries, covering over half the world’s population, have now committed to tackling climate change through a WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health. Until now, data has been fragmented and inaccessible, but The Lancet MedZero was built to change that.

For hospitals and health systems to turn those commitments into action, they need transparent and trustworthy data to make evidence-based decisions. A surgeon redesigning a care pathway, a pharmacist restocking a hospital supply, a procurement lead renegotiating supply contracts, and a health minister setting national strategy: all of them need product-level carbon data, quickly and reliably.

The Lancet MedZero brings together expertise in healthcare delivery, carbon analytics, and system transformation, with contributors from across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. This diversity reflects a shared commitment to advancing sustainable healthcare across regions.

Academic partners include Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), Thailand; National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan; National University of Singapore; Northeastern University, USA; and University of Melbourne, Australia

The Lancet is one of the world’s leading medical journals, published since 1823. It has a long-standing commitment to climate and health, including through the Lancet Countdown, the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare, and multiple commissions on planetary health, pollution, among others.