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• Posted August 28, 2025

GLP-1 Drugs Are Good For Climate Change, Heart Study Says

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound don’t just enable people to drop pounds  — they also are helping save the planet, a new study says.

These drugs translate into decreased greenhouse gas emissions when used to help heart failure patients lose weight, researchers reported Wednesday at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Madrid.

Heart patients saved about 0.25 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per person annually when taking GLP-1 drugs, because they were less likely to require hospitalization, researchers found.

“When this figure is scaled up to the millions of patients eligible for these therapies, it adds up to over 2 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide-equivalent saved,” said lead researcher Dr. Sarju Ganatra, director of sustainability and vice-chair of research at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Mass.

Two billion kilograms of carbon dioxide are roughly equal to 20,000 full-capacity Boeing 747 long-haul flights, researchers said.

And around 30 million trees grown over 10 years would be needed to offset 2 billion kilograms of CO2, they added.

“Similar-scale reductions were observed in waste generation and water use," Ganatra said in a news release. “This research highlights how even modest incremental individual gains can result in significant collective impact.”

For the study, researchers pooled data from four clinical trials involving heart patients treated with GLP-1 drugs.

The patients all had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, in which the heart’s pumping ability is normal but the heart muscle is too stiff to relax and fill with enough blood. About half of heart failure patients have this type, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Results showed there were 54 worsening heart failure events among 1,914 patients receiving GLP-1 drugs, compared with 86 events among 1,829 patients given a placebo.

Each worsening heart failure event was assumed to involve a hospitalization and a round trip to the hospital, researchers said.

Based on that, GLP-1 heart patients were estimated to produce 9.45 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per patient per year, compared to 9.7 kilograms for those given a placebo.

Those taking GLP-1 drugs also benefitted the climate by eating less. GLP-1 patients were responsible for roughly 695 kilograms lower carbon dioxide emissions annually due to a reduction in their daily calorie consumption, compared to those on placebo, researchers found.

“The magnitude of the potential environmental emission savings found in our analysis was striking,” Ganatra said.

The results “show that it is possible for medical treatments to deliver dual benefits — better health for patients and a healthier planet,” Ganatra added. “We hope that in the future, policymakers will integrate sustainability metrics into health technology assessments, drug coverage decisions and procurement frameworks.”

Researchers next plan to validate their model using real-world emissions data and clinical outcomes.

“In the future, we hope that environmental impact will be integrated into clinical trial designs, drug regulatory processes and formulary decisions to ensure health systems align with planetary health goals,” Ganatra said.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American College of Cardiology has more on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

SOURCE: European Society of Cardiology, news release, Aug. 27, 2025