Gaps in Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions by German Hospitals—A Systematic Grey Literature Review

Claudia Quitmann,Alina Herrmann,Rainer Sauerborn

doi:10.3390/su13031430

Claudia Quitmann, Alina Herrmann + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031430

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Abstract

To mitigate the negative (health) consequences of climate change, the Paris Agreement demands a radical reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The health sector contributes considerably to climate change worldwide. In Germany it is responsible for 6.7% of national GHG emissions. The transition to low-carbon hospitals requires detailed knowledge of the amount and sources of GHG emissions. This study aimed at capturing the status quo of GHG emission reporting by German hospitals and at examining characteristics of the reports. Therefore, we performed a grey literature review with pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The search strategy comprised hand-searching specific databases, targeted websites and web search engines via a standardized set of search terms. We found 232 German hospitals reporting their GHG emissions, representing 12% of all hospitals. Yet, only 62 hospitals (3%) met the inclusion criteria for further analysis. These reports do not comprise all energy-related GHG emissions, omit GHG emissions occurring up- and downstream of hospitals and mainly include CO2, but leave out other GHG. Consequently, there are severe gaps regarding GHG emissions reports of German hospitals. If Germany wants to comply with the Paris Agreement, hospitals need to be obliged to follow a standardized methodology to report and reduce GHG emissions.

Highlights

Climate change is posing threats to human health, for instance, through increased mortality in extreme weather events or by decreasing agricultural yields and rising sea levels, endangering human livelihoods [1]
We found 232 hospitals with any kind of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reporting
We only found 232 out of 1925 (12%) German hospitals reporting their GHG emissions

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is posing threats to human health, for instance, through increased mortality in extreme weather events or by decreasing agricultural yields and rising sea levels, endangering human livelihoods [1]. In the climate change discourse, health and the health sector have more nuanced roles than that. The health sector, including “all organizations, institutions and resources devoted to producing health actions” [1], will be impacted by climate change, but will be key in adapting to climate change and to motivate climate-friendly behaviour [2,3]. The health sector is a relevant contributor to rising levels of GHG emissions and thereby to climate change. In Germany, the health sector is responsible for 6.7% (55.1 Mt CO2 ) of the country’s GHG emissions [4]. One third of the GHG emissions are energy-related [5]: either direct from sources owned or controlled by healthcare facilities (Scope 1) or indirect from purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the healthcare facilities (Scope 2)

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