SHADE Newsletter 27th July 2026

Welcome to the forty fifth edition of the SHADE newsletter! 

SHADE is a research hub with a mission to explore issues at the intersection of digital technologies/AI, health and the environment. It is guided by a fundamental question: How should the balance between AI/digital enabled health and planetary health be struck in different areas of the world, and what should be the guiding principles?

The SHADE newsletter comes out four times a year. It takes an in depth look at selected topics, as well as highlighting new resources, events and opportunities in the SHADE space.

In this newsletter we highlight the advantages of framing digital sustainability in health, rather than carbon, terms. We also do a round up of studies from Planetary Health and One Health. We conclude with a selection of resources, events and opportunities. We hope you enjoy it!

Please tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what you think is missing at [email protected].   

Framing digital sustainability in health terms

• This month, as an article in Nature suggests we are in ‘climate free fall’, this rapid analysis, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Imperial College and the Met Office, suggests human induced climate change was responsible for around 42% of the total heat-related deaths in England and Wales during the May and June heatwaves.

• Also this month, HotCarbon 2026 called for research on the impacts of computing systems on human health. This adds another step to the LSHTM study to enable links to be drawn specifically from digital systems impact on the environment and through that to human health.

• Two articles from the Green Web Foundation pick up on this, first of all with why human health should be digital sustainability’s default metric. They then go on to apply this in healthcare, with From Carbon to Care, avoiding the unintended consequences of NHS digitisation.

Planetary and One Health

• This study from three large cohorts in the US, concluded that a higher score on the Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI) was associated with a lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality. PHDI scores were also inversely associated with adverse environmental impacts.

• A study conducted by a consortium of 10 global modelling groups for the second EAT-Lancet Commission shows how a shift to healthy sustainable diets would reshape global agriculture. The authors call for bold policy decisions to benefit health and the planet, support farmers and consumers in adapting to fundamental change and ‘confront powerful groups that profit from the status quo’.

• This One Health editorial looks at the intersecting crises of anthropogenic climate change, escalating AMR and the ongoing emergence of zoonotic infections. It proposes a governance framework to mitigate this emerging systemic risk.

• Sticking with AMR, this analysis reveals how Africa’s biodiversity could help it tackle AMR if there was a better translational framework in place to integrate advanced research, entrepreneurial support and ethical governance. Meanwhile this scoping review synthesised evidence on antibiotic prescribing by informal healthcare providers in LMICs, highlighting a critical gap in AMR surveillance and the need for strategies to engage these providers.

Resources, Events and Opportunities

• What does a good digital society look like? This conference represents the culmination of the five year long Digital Good Network and is taking place at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK on June 10th and 11th 2027. Submit your abstract or proposal by October 29th 2026.

• Are you carrying out research? Do you have 10 minutes to spare? Take part in this study, from the University of Sussex and collaborators in Paris, on how ‘new’ science practices (for example those around conducting green science, open science, slow science) are perceived and the barriers to adopting them. .

• Check out South Africa’s first climate and health surveillance platform which tracks, visualises and communicates ‘key climate-health interactions across the country in near real time’.

• A round up of perspectives on the sustainability of AI: Firstly, sustainability continues to be seen as primarily a matter of increasing efficiency amongst tech leaders as they project a positive message on AI in Sustainability. Secondly, AWS faces a lawsuit over its sustainability claims. Thirdly, regulators are urged to be cautious in assessing hyperscalers’ carbon free energy projections as Google acknowledges that AI growth is outrunning grid decarbonisation. Finally, New York becomes the first state to impose a one year pause on new AI datacenters. As this all unfolded an international summer school at Bristol University explored the future of ecocentric AI, asking Can AI help the plant without harming it?

And finally, Reimagining the future of digital health from Data and Society. This series of essays presents a range of possibilities for the future of digital health and offers inspiration for building them.

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