Health system causes too high CO2 emissions, says top Swiss doctor

One MRI treatment alone causes 25 kilograms of CO2, according to Nicolas Senn. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss healthcare system has recently produced one tonne of CO2 emissions per year per inhabitant, according to Lausanne’s chief physician Nicolas Senn. Measures such as more energy-efficient buildings would already greatly reduce emissions, he said.

The Swiss health system is responsible for 6-8% of the country’s total CO2 emissions, Senn said in an interviewExternal link with Le Temps published on Friday. The health system would even consume the entire CO2 budget if Switzerland wanted to comply with the Paris climate agreement, he said.

Senn is head of the Department of Family Medicine at the Unisanté University Health Centre in Lausanne. He is also co-head of the Platform for Sustainability and Health of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at the University of Lausanne.

He warned about the impact on health: “The ecological impact of healthcare kills as many people as medical errors.”

+ Swiss approve net-zero climate law

According to Senn, emissions could be reduced by 60-70%, especially by improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Senn also sees potential in renewable sources of electricity and less motorised traffic for staff and patients on their way to the hospital.

Hospitals mainly responsible

Hospitals are responsible for 75-80% of emissions in the health sector, he said. According to Senn, this is followed by medicines. They account for a third of the CO2 emissions. For example, diabetes treatment causes 10-12kg of CO2 per year, he said.

MRI treatments, magnetic resonance imaging, are particularly energy-intensive, he said, pointing out that one MRI treatment alone causes 25 kilograms of CO2. “If you have two MRIs a year and take five medications, that is the only energy expenditure you could afford for your health to comply with the Paris Agreement,” Senn said.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].