Perspectives on climate change: can hand surgery go carbon neutral?

The world is getting hotter. The atmosphere and ocean are warming, amounts of snow and ice are falling, and the sea levels are rising. It is globally considered extremely likely that these changes are driven by human activity, primarily through the use of fossil fuel and resultant carbon dioxide emissions. Rising temperatures will have a negative impact on health through water and food insecurity, changing patterns of disease, population migration and extreme weather events. The link between hand surgery and climate change may appear tenuous, but healthcare activity contributes significantly to a population’s carbon emissions (NHS England and NHS Improvement, 2020). Adapting how we deliver hand surgery will positively impact climate change, at a moment where we all need to play our part. In this article we argue for the importance of delivering care that improves our patients’ lives while minimizing long-term damage to the world we share, and suggest our priorities for carbon neutral hand surgery.