Planetary Health: How Climate Change Becomes a Health Issue
Heat waves, air pollution, and extreme weather events: climate change has long become a health issue as well. A Faculty Lecture at the University of Lucerne explored why scientific evidence about the links between human and environmental health often takes time to translate into political action.
The effects of climate change extend far beyond environmental changes and increasingly influence social and health-related developments. These connections and interactions are one of the focal points of the field of Planetary Health. The concept examines how human health depends on the health of Earth’s natural systems and their capacity to sustain life. Climate change is one of the nine planetary boundaries that help maintain the conditions for life on Earth. Beyond being a scientific field, Planetary Health has also become a global movement aimed at protecting the health of people and ecosystems worldwide.
With today’s World Environment Day, which takes place on 5 June each year and this year is held under the theme “A Global Call for Climate Action”, the question of how existing knowledge can be turned into concrete action is becoming increasingly important. This challenge was also the focus of the lecture “Planetary Health in Geopolitical Times”, held on 25 May 2026. The event examined the political, economic, and institutional factors that determine whether insights from Planetary Health research can actually lead to meaningful change. Topics included governance, conflicts of interest, and international power dynamics that shape opportunities for action in the fields of health and the environment.
Unequally Distributed Health Impacts
Dr. MPM Marleen Bekker, Associate Professor für Health Policy and Politics an der Wageningen University Group, explained how closely climate change, health, and societal developments are interconnected.
At the beginning of her talk, Bekker highlighted that the health impacts of climate change are not distributed equally. People and regions already facing social or infrastructure-related challenges are often the most affected, both locally and globally. Drawing on examples from her previous work as a nurse, she showed how damp housing, mold, polluted streets, and inadequate infrastructure can increase health risks. Around the world, countries with limited resources bear much of the burden of heat waves, flooding, and deforestation, even though they have hardly contributed to the climate crisis.
The health effects of climate change result from the interaction between environmental and social factors. These include consumption patterns, urbanization, and technological developments that contribute to environmental pressures such as air pollution, water scarcity, and extreme weather events. At the same time, the extent to which people are affected depends on factors such as income, infrastructure, political stability, and access to healthcare.
When Health Becomes Political
A central question of the lecture was why scientific evidence alone is often not enough to drive change. Bekker discussed how political polarization, economic interests, and misinformation can make it more difficult to implement climate and health policies. These dynamics influence how scientific findings are perceived and whether they ultimately shape political decision-making.
Bekker also pointed to broader drivers of environmental change, including consumer behavior, economic growth models, and societal values. These factors operate over the long term and are deeply embedded in political and economic systems. As a result, developing effective responses to climate change requires a system transformation driven by new forms of collaboration. This includes involving affected communities in transdisciplinary research and bottom up policymaking and enabling policymakers to adopt and implement scientific evidence in preventive, protective and transformative policies and regulations.
The conditions under which scientific advice is provided to policymakers also play an important role. Independent institutions, transparent decision-making processes, and long-term funding structures are widely seen as essential for building trust and supporting evidence-based policymaking.
Thinking About Health and the Environment Together
The lecture highlighted how closely environmental and health issues are connected and how strongly political factors influence efforts to address them. On today’s World Environment Day, this perspective is especially timely. The event made clear that the health impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly visible. Whether effective measures follow, however, depends not only on scientific knowledge but also on political decisions, institutional structures, and societal initiatives for collective action and coalition building.
