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Centre for Sustainable Medicine (CoSM)

Categories: Net zero health systems, GHG emissions assessments, Action plans for sustainable low carbon health systems

The Centre for Sustainable Medicine (CoSM) is a research institution at the National University of Singapore (NUS), ranked among the world's top 10 universities. CoSM is a leading global institution dedicated exclusively to sustainable healthcare, equipping clinicians, health system leaders, and policymakers with the evidence and tools needed to deliver net zero, climate-resilient health systems, directly supporting the COP26 Health Programme's decarbonisation and resilience commitments. Our technical expertise spans health system baselining, national and institutional net zero strategy and action plan development, capacity building for carbon measurement, and life-cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting of clinical care to drive practical clinical transformation. CoSM currently co-leads the Healthcare Decarbonization Analytics Task Team within ATACH, leads the low-carbon working group for the WHO Standards for Climate-Resilient and Environmentally Sustainable Health Care Facilities, and plays a lead role in the development and implementation of the Lancet MedZero, a carbon accounting platform initiative by The Lancet and used by health institutions worldwide to measure and reduce emissions. Backed by NUS's global research and diplomatic networks, CoSM is positioned to support ATACH member countries across all regions in translating global commitments into measurable, system-level action, and welcomes the opportunity to contribute this expertise to ATACH's working groups and task teams.

Supporting the following commitments:

  • Commitment 4: Set a target date by which to achieve health systems net zero emissions (ideally by 2050).,

  • Commitment 5: Deliver a baseline assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of the health system (including supply chains).,

  • Commitment 6: Develop an action plan or roadmap by a set date to develop a sustainable low carbon health system (including supply chains).

Country experience:

Philippines: Commitments 5 and 6
Fiji: Commitments 5 and 6
Bangladesh: Commitments 5 and 6
Solomon Islands: Commitments 5 and 6
Singapore: Commitments 5 and 6