Climate change presents a critical global health crisis, and the healthcare sector — including the practice of anesthesia — is a meaningful contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Waste anesthetic gases are a notable source of these emissions, with volatile anesthetics contributing the equivalent of 5.6 million tons of carbon dioxide to US greenhouse gas emissions.
The most commonly used volatile anesthetics — N₂O, desflurane, sevoflurane, and isoflurane — vary significantly in their environmental impact. Some agents destroy atmospheric ozone, while others function as greenhouse gases by absorbing infrared radiation and trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Atmospheric persistence differs substantially among agents: sevoflurane persists 1–5 years, isoflurane 3–6 years, and desflurane 9–21 years. Global warming potential also differs dramatically, with desflurane being approximately 15 times more damaging than emissions from sevoflurane and 20 times more harmful than those from isoflurane.
An Australian study demonstrated desflurane's disproportionate environmental contribution, accounting for approximately 78% of total anesthesia greenhouse gas emissions despite being only one of three fluorinated agents examined in the analysis.
Given these findings, practitioners are encouraged to choose lower global warming potential (GWP) anesthetic agents to mitigate the environmental and health impacts of global warming, without compromising patient care or clinical outcomes.