ANSES to coordinate Green Data for Health (GD4H) in support of environmental health
On Wednesday 2 April 2025, a cooperation agreement was signed between the members of the Green Data for Health project (GD4H), entrusting ANSES with its coordination. GD4H brings together a community of French environmental health stakeholders, with the aim of facilitating the availability of environmental data and their cross-referencing with health data.
Launched in 2020 under the fourth National Environmental Health Plan (PNSE4), the goal of GD4H is to improve understanding of the impact of environmental factors on health, by making it easier to cross-reference environmental data with health data. It benefits a wide range of stakeholders (ministries, public expert appraisal bodies, local players and researchers), as well as healthcare professionals, private companies, associations and civil society players working on environmental health issues.
Although it is not a data warehouse, GD4H references all the available sources of environmental data and provides tools offering legal advice on accessing and sharing data. It also supports knowledge production and the cross-referencing of environmental health data through calls for projects and other initiatives in support of research and public action.
Transfer of responsibility for coordination
Until now, GD4H's services have been provided by the Ecolab laboratory of the General Commission for Sustainable Development (CGDD). This organisation was only intended to last for the duration of the PNSE4 and the incubation of the project. The transfer of this coordination task to ANSES was made official on 2 April 2025. The Agency has been involved in the project as a partner from the outset. Governance of the GD4H will continue to be shared between its members, namely the Ministries for Ecological Transition, Health and Research, ANSES, ADEME, Cerema, EHESP, the Health Data Hub, Ineris, Inserm, the OFB and Santé Publique France. The project may welcome new partners to help it achieve its goals.
The issues addressed by GD4H are fully in line with ANSES's commitment to develop a holistic approach to health. This involves speeding up the creation of databases on human, animal, plant and environmental health and breaking down the barriers between them, as part of the One Health approach to health risks and in order to better assess the effect of the exposome. GD4H is already listed as a project of interest in the Agency's Goals and Performance Contract for 2023-2027. It was therefore only natural that ANSES should apply to coordinate this project, with the support of the partners involved.