This article highlights that healthcare is a significant and often overlooked contributor to climate change, accounting for 7% of Australia’s national carbon emissions and 4.4% globally—making it the equivalent of the world’s fifth‑largest emitter if considered a country. It explains how healthcare‑related emissions paradoxically harm human health through climate impacts such as heatwaves, bushfires, food insecurity, and the spread of infectious diseases. The article shows that much of healthcare’s carbon footprint comes from clinical activities, including imaging, pathology tests, anaesthetic gases, and inhalers, with a substantial proportion of these interventions found to be unnecessary or low value. It argues that switching to clinically equivalent, lower‑carbon alternatives and reducing unnecessary tests and treatments can significantly cut emissions without compromising patient safety or outcomes, and concludes that achieving net‑zero healthcare will require education, clinician leadership, and coordinated action across health systems and governments.
